The Restoration Man

When Lee Head spotted a Victorian railway station for sale in Northumberland, he saw the opportunity of a lifetime. He drew up a masterplan to fund the conversion of the main station into a family home by selling off other buildings, and saving labour costs by doing all the building work alone at weekends. This challenge is made all the more daunting by planning restrictions that mean doorways can’t be knocked through to join the string of separate rooms into a single home. George gives Lee a welcome hand when he can, and investigates the history behind why such a fine rural railway station never had a chance to meet its promise.

When Lee Head spotted a Victorian railway station for sale in Northumberland, he saw the opportunity of a lifetime. He drew up a masterplan to fund the conversion of the main station into a family home by selling off other buildings, and saving labour costs by doing all the building work alone at weekends. This challenge is made all the more daunting by planning restrictions that mean doorways can’t be knocked through to join the string of separate rooms into a single home. George gives Lee a welcome hand when he can, and investigates the history behind why such a fine rural railway station never had a chance to meet its promise.

Restoration novices Mark Hinchliffe and Laura Rushton hatch a risky plan to convert two beautiful but crumbling church buildings into family homes. The success of the project hangs on them transforming the listed Sunday school – as all the profits from its sale are needed to turn the cavernous Victorian church into Mark and Laura’s forever home. The stunning Sunday school conversion shows they are born restorers, but can they keep up their high standards as the hidden costs of modernising these neglected buildings start to spiral?

Young couple Steven Crame and Marina Bacchelli were looking for their first home to own together in Berkshire when they found a disused water pumping station with two water boreholes nestling in its own ancient woodland. The couple were restoration novices, but as engineering fans they threw themselves into the task of converting the huge brick shed into a modern 4-bed family home, whilst preserving a 15-tonne crane as a central feature of their lounge! A new-born baby, flooding and spiralling costs pile the pressure on this young couple, but as Steveen says, “If we get through this, we’ll get through anything”.

When Cheshire couple Andrew Jones and Michele Gibbons saw an 85ft Art Deco water tower for sale, they saw a chance to pull out the stops and create the 6-storey “end house” of their dreams. Converting this pioneering example of modernist architecture proved an incredible challenge for the builders, however, who had to cut through double reinforced concrete to build new floors and fit over 20 new windows. It takes almost a year to get wind and water tight, and the site is flooded just as the couple are coming to terms with fact that, despite a dislike of Art Deco furniture, they need to furnish their towering example of architectural history in a fitting style.

Family tensions are all part of the challenge when Matt Whittle and his father-in-law to be Mike Readfern pool their resources to turn an enormous water filtration plant into two semi-detached houses with an internal garden atrium. Matt’s builder brother Jimmy offers to help keep costs down by living on site while doing the heavy building work single-handed, but brotherly relations are sorely tested as the huge scale of the project makes the schedule drag on. George encourages them to persevere and make the most of the unique opportunity that the internal atrium gives them - to create a garden for all weathers.

When businesswoman Jude McKelvey took a dilapidated 17th century threshing barn under her wing, she knew it would be a labour of love to restore it to its former glory and give her and her two boys a family home. With a Grade 2 star listing and tight conservation restrictions, just to restore the structural integrity of this 4000 sq ft medieval timber-framed structure takes months of painstaking craftsmanship. After replacing 44,000 clay tiles by hand, Jude faces the enormous challenge of dividing up the barn’s cavernous interior into rooms without destroying its priceless heritage.

George returns to see the finished restoration of the second of two impressive church buildings. Three years since Mark Hinchliffe and Laura Rushton hatched the risky plan to convert the Sunday School and sell it on in order to raise funds for restoring the huge church next door, have the spiralling costs of modernising these crumbling buildings hindered Mark’s spectacular plans? As his high standards and eccentric collector’s tastes are allowed to take full flight for his own dream home, the result proves to be a truly unique and unforgettable restoration project.

George returns to Harrogate to see how Carol and Majid Nadry have finished converting their brick water tower into their dream home. After the huge delays and eye-watering legal costs of sorting planning and access restrictions, the couple have finally built the two-storey extension that was the key to creating a family home with character for them and their daughters. George sees how the industrial heritage of this unique building is beautifully complemented by a 21st century glass and sheet metal extension that finally realises the old water tower’s hidden potential.

A year and a half after Neil Worrell and Jackie Robinson moved into the old Fisherman’s Church in Brixham, George returns to Devon to see how the restoration changed their lives beyond recognition. The couple are now busy running their adopted town’s iconic tourist attraction - a replica of Sir Francis Drake’s legendary ship The Golden Hind. And high on Dartmoor, George is stunned to explore Neil’s latest impulse buy – 200 square metres of mysterious corridors and tanks hidden underground. With a magical son et lumiere finale in the harbour, it looks like Neil & Jackie’s restoration story is only just beginning.

George returns to see the finished restoration of a derelict World War II airfield control tower in Scotland. Four years ago, London couple Justin Hooper and Charlotte Seddon made the ambitious decision to project manage the build from 600 miles away, but with costs like 40% of their budget being taken up refitting heritage windows, they were forced to shut down the build or make a complete lifestyle change by moving the family up to this remote part of Scotland to finish it off. Have they finally bitten the bullet and turned a concrete military structure into their new family home?

George revisits an epic Restoration Man project – a 17th century water mill in a picturesque riverside setting in Northumberland. Eight years since they took them on, Dave and Margaret Hedley have never stopped restoring the mill’s enviable heritage. Battling through historic flooding and devastating illness, the couple didn’t rest - hand-building a working replica of the old water wheel and the mill’s internal machinery. In the threshing barn next door, their impeccable restoration standards have now been maintained in every detail, and the water wheel is about to take on a new purpose for the 21st century.