Restoration Home (BBC - Season 1)

Crumbling, ancient houses are brought back to life by passionate owners as they restore and convert them into striking 21st century homes, unravelling the properties' extraordinary past lives through their architectural and social history.

Episode 1 - St Thomas a Becket Church, Somerset

St Thomas a Becket church in Somerset is on the heritage critical list and badly in need of rescue. A flood in 1968 led to the church's eventual deconsecration and it is just one of many churches in Britain that has been declared redundant. Decline in church-going and amalgamation of parishes have put a huge swathe of our architectural heritage in peril.
Working their way up the property ladder, newly-weds Paul and Laura spotted the church in 2007 and decided this was the family home for them. They purchased the listed church with plans to turn it into a three-bedroom home.

As the church is transformed, its past emerges - the dark times which marked its end and its links to an architectural movement that would change style forever, connecting it to the design of some of the greatest buildings in the country.

Episode 2 - Nutbourne Pumping Station, West Sussex

Nutbourne pumping station in West Sussex is a wreck. It closed in the 1970s and is now an industrial-size bunker full of rusting, redundant, heavy duty machinery. But this ruin was at the heart of a revolution that saved our grandparents' generation and changed society forever.
Its remarkable past doesn't stop there, it was slap bang in the heyday of architectural design and played a crucial role in the dark, dismal years of the 1930s depression.

For new owners Nick and Brigitte, the rotting bunker offered the ideal space for them and their five-year-old twins. Their plan is ambitious - turn the concrete carcass into a carbon efficient home for life. When the couple first bought the pumping station, they had no sentimental attachment to its former life. But as they learn about its past, their feelings towards the building begin to change.


Enjoy and Seed!!