Serendipity Strikes

The weekend before last when the mother in law was down, we popped over to Dorset to visit a reclamation yard we'd been told about in Bere Regis.

Off we trundled, and had a look around. It was good, lots of doors, windows and odds and sods, but not the exact fireplace we were after.

So we headed off slightly disappointed. In order to lift our spirits we decided a cream tea was needed! Last time we had superb scoffing was in Blandford, and as it was only a few miles away we went we could almost smell the freshly baked scones!

Stuffed full over of strawberry jam and clotted cream etc we do what we always do at any village, town city - we found the local book shop. So whilst Steven went upstairs and Monica looked bored, I sat down on the bottom step of the staircase in the shop and stumbled on a book on reclamation.



A thumb through made me want to buy it, as it was full of ideas a fabby pictures of done-up places that may inspire. Plus, in the back was a list county by county of reclamation yards. One of the nearest was Semley near Shaftesbury, off we headed. The yard itself was near a railway line housed in what looked like two old nissen huts. After a few seconds poking around both Steve's and my eyes fell onto what looked like the perfect mantle piece and over-mantle mirror thing, we reckon circa 1920 oak wood. The chap said it had just come in and they had not had a chance to clean it up or polish it. (pic to follow) Plus then we spotted a set of original art nouveau tiles that went either side of the fire set in a surround. A deal was to be had here. All we needed was a nice cast iron surround to fit the tiles into.... And as if by magic the owner appeared with a suggestion we took a look at a rusty heap outside.

So once I said "That's my car!", we were shown to this fire surround. This is a picture of it in the garage, as naturally we struck a deal and this weekend just gone we hired a van to collect it all.



I'm really pleased with it, as it almost matches the detail we have in the stained glass of the front door.





 Here's a couple more pics. The next thing I've started doing is using a wire brush attachment to the power drill is labouriously removing the rust.