LOOKING back on some of the stories the Gazette has reported through the years...

1987​

AN Englishman’s home may be his castle, but in the case of Bruce Farr, his Tockington home became much more “a way of life”.

The Gazette reported on Mr Farr’s renovation project at Sheepscombe House, Washingpool Hill - an attractive grade II listed Elizabethan farmhouse - in September 1987.

Bruce and his wife, Susan, had bought the house 15 years previously from a friend who was having problems selling the vandalised and overgrown property.

Bruce recalled with a smile that most people thought them mad to buy what they described as an “11-bedroom-ruin”.

It had been left empty for three years and, as well as there not being a pane of glass left intact in the building, trees had grown through a back roof.

There was no electricity - a generator used by the previous residents had been stolen - and no bathroom.

The couple moved in 18 months after buying the house, anticipating that it would take them 20 years to renovate and redecorate it.

Bruce admitted the house is “like the Forth Bridge, it goes on and on”.

He recalled tramping across the landing through snow to get to the bathroom not long after they had moved in.