Cullingworth 'time warp' brought back to life (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Cullingworth 'time warp' brought back to life

4:48pm Wednesday 7th September 2011

When Katie Cope and her sons Jake and Joss moved into this property in Cullingworth in 2004, it wasn’t just the weather that was grim.

“The house had been empty for a while and there was no central heating and just a small shower. It was very grim and cold, ” says Katie.

The family had sold their home in Oxenhope when they saw a small ad in the Telegraph & Argus for this detached four bedroom home, dating back to around 1850.

“An elderly lady had been living there since the 1930s and it was quite untouched, almost caught in a time warp,” Katie says. “But I loved that. It ticked all the boxes – a nice big house, a family home large enough that the children could run around and make noise.

“We didn’t have the luxury of staying in rented accommodation while the house was fixed so we had to move in. It was hard work, especially with the children.

“In the front room we put the furniture we took out of storage. The room was stacked from floor to ceiling, with space around the edge for the plumbers to put in the radiators, and a humidifier to help dry out all the acres of new plaster.

“Some people might have not enjoyed the experience, but I loved it. There was a real buzz.”

Along the way there were some happy discoveries, like the slate floor hidden under a covering in the dining room.

“We were pulling out a rotten cupboard and saw slate flags. I took a whole weekend to remove the top covering and then scrub them clean,” Katie recalls.

This room is much more than just a dining room, with pride of place going to an Aga.

Katie is an enthusiastic cook: “I do all my preparations at the scrubbed pine table and then I just have to turn round and use the cooker.”

This is Katie’s favourite room, where she curls up by the Aga on a cold winter’s day or warms her back against it.

Katie has been very careful to keep virtually all the character features in the property, including skirting boards more than a foot high, a stained glass window on the landing, the original wood floor in the hallway and even the original units in the kitchen.

“If you look behind the mirror in the bathroom you’ll find a beautiful drawing of a deer and a nursery rhyme. When I was decorating the bathroom I just I couldn’t bear to paint over it, so I put a mirror over it.”

The house has four bedrooms – one with en-suite – three reception rooms, kitchen, utility room, conservatory, cellar with three chambers, four bedrooms, two studies and a family bathroom.

The house is an eclectic mix of furniture and furnishings that give it a welcoming feel.

“My home is totally an extension of me – it’s not just a house with things in it that I bought,” Katie says. “Everything you have around you should tell a story. I can look at anything in the room and it has history, and not just that I went to a shop and bought it. It’s a reminder of our lives.”

There is a detached garage, parking for several cars and a private, enclosed garden.

“We put in a veg plot because the ground is so fantastic. It’s obviously had a vegetable garden virtually since it was built. You can grow anything – just plonk it in the ground and away it goes. There’s also a massive fig tree that we planted which gives loads of fruit.”

This property in Lodge Street, Cullingworth, is on the market for £299,950 with Henleys Property Group, Bingley, tel (01274) 560321