The buildings on the place were 150-plus years old and had yard-thick stone walls. The house was stuccoed on the ... on the outside with a mud-mortar/rubble stone mix on the inside.

Monty Don moved into a "derelict" home with his wife Sarah, admitting their Herefordshire abode was "ruined" when they bought it.

The rubble-finished limestone walls, in particular ... liked to take one part of a house and make it a question mark: ‘Oh, is this an original old stone home?’” Willson says.