No. 1 William St, Port Fairy

02/12/2025

One of the joys of owning an old house is learning it’s stories. It’s important we let it tell them … even when sometimes it’s only a hint.

02/12/2025

We’ve had an unusual spring but the garden has loved it.
We’re enjoying the it’s lushness and can’t resist bringing it inside with us.

02/12/2025

17/10/2025

I’m rarely seen in posts but this photo from my stone man demonstrates beautifully the satisfying Georgian proportions of No1.
At first glance the cottage has the appearance of a dolls house.
To the contrary it’s proportions are grand on a small scale. The front 2 original rooms have arches either side of the internal fireplace with 11 foot ceilings. This sets it apart from other workman’s cottages.
One room has the bar through the fireplace for hanging cooking pots over the fire. They had no external kitchen.
We are still trying to determine dates for the back two rooms but it is clear that the Bowyer family lived in the front two rooms alone. The quality of both the stone and the craftsmanship of the back two rooms suggest another time and another craftsman.
We ponder whether Benjamin and Maryanne had originally planned to continue to build in a grander scale.
We can only guess ……
I am looking forward to the new stone wall and garden at the front.

16/10/2025

My stoneman has been assembling his materials.
Sand
Line
and foraged stone.
This is what my cottage is made of.
And of course skill

08/12/2024

We are excited that we can begin to show some of the almost complete restoration work out stone man has been working on through the winter months we were closed last year and again through most of the winter and spring this year.
No 1 was seriously needing sone skilled skilled restoration. Unskilled and inexperienced repairs of multiple layers of cement patches had caused “stone cancer” in much of the limestone.
We’ve been on an exciting journey of discovery and we will begin to tell more of this in the blog of our website.
The pointing is still to be rubbed back and the stone cleaned before we start to plant a new garden in the autumn.

18/11/2024

I usually prefer not to show work in progress but yesterday my stone man was so excited when he rang to tell me he had decided to remove more of the dirt that was hiding the bottom of the footing, and had found beautiful bluestone bolders on one side and more conventional stone on the other.
It is evident that there is one more cornerstone to be placed and then I can show the full story of this repair.
The stone will be lightly rendered so the shapes will still show as in the almost last photo.
The boulders would have been the start of the build and brought from the beach.

22/10/2024

Today our no 1 was set in place in the space that’s been waiting for it.
I’m looking forward to showing more.

03/10/2024

I’m rarely seen in posts but this photo from my stone man demonstrates beautifully the satisfying Georgian proportions of No1.
At first glance the cottage has the appearance of a dolls house.
To the contrary it’s proportions are grand on a small scale. The front 2 original rooms have arches either side of the internal fireplace with 11 foot ceilings which set it apart from other workman’s cottages.
We are still trying to determine dates for the back two rooms but it is clear that the Bowyer family originally lived in the front two rooms alone.
One room has the bar through the fireplace for hanging cooking pots over the fire. They had no external kitchen.
We ponder whether Benjamin and Maryanne had originally planned to continue to build in a grander scale.
We can only guess ……

03/10/2024

It’s a year since our beautiful double hung windows were reinstalled.
The stonework is progressing even if weather intervenes and work seems slow.
The front is nearly finished and you can see by the scaffolding work is well underway on the North wall.
Early this week the raised beds at the front were removed and it appeared the cottage was rising out of the ground.
Today the new bluestone steps will be finished and next week a new stone wall on the boundary will begin.