The courtyard was repaved over the winter which involved taking up the concrete paving stones,
replacing 40 tons of sand with clean stone and laying Blue Lias paving stones on a lime mortar
bed. Unlike cement, the lime mortar drains which

should prevent the stones being damaged by frost All the stones are Blue Lias but the paths joining
the doors have been formed with sawn stone

whereas the four quadrants are filled with rough-hewn stone which has a very different colouring.

This mirrors the treatment before the concrete stones were laid at some point in the first part of
the 20th century when the quadrants were sewn with grass which did not grow very well.

We were able to re-use the few stones from the previous paths which had been left. It is speculation
but I suspect that a lot of these earlier stones had broken up and been replaced but damaged stones
were re-used in the path outside the South Porch.

These became so uneven that we had to replace them ten years ago and what was left we used to
create paths in the beds beyond the smaller of the two ponds. When we removed the old stones and
started digging we revealed the old well which had to be made safe.