The Old Tannery was originally one building, became two dwellings and has now been returned to a single home.

Built in 1812 on the site of, unsurprisingly, an old tannery, it was split into two houses in 1923.

Gary and Jenny Thompson, who moved into one of the properties as newlyweds in 1993, say previous owners had literally built a red brick wall down the middle of the house.

“Then they had added an extension onto each of the houses to accommodate the kitchen and bathroom, and pebble-dashed the whole of the lovely Yorkshire stone. This made it look like a 1960s house, which is why it was overlooked by the listed buildings people,” Jenny says.

“When we went to see it, it hadn’t been modernised by the previous occupier and we were a young couple looking for a challenge as money was limited.

“We absolutely loved the feel of the house inside, even though there was no kitchen and the outside of the house looked horrendous. We could see that there was real potential to turn it into the home we wanted.

“We always dreamed of buying the house next-door. As our family grew, we did look to move but couldn’t find anything that we loved as much. In 2003, I asked the neighbours to a barbecue to see if they had any intention of moving. After a couple of burgers and glasses of wine, we said we would happily pay £10,000 over the market price should they ever decide to move.

“They said they had no intention of moving, but the next day they came round and said they had considered our offer and had instructed an estate agent to come and value the house!”

The fact that it had been one house made it a simple job to convert it back again, as it had been split straight down the middle and a second staircase built.

“Basically, next-door was a mirror image of our house,” Jenny says. “We did a lot of the work needed on our side of the house while the sale was going through – it’s a good job it didn’t fail. This meant that when the sale was completed, we just had to remove the wall between the two properties and install steel girders to hold up the structure so that we could get into next-door.”

As with any major job, things didn’t go completely according to plan.

“The sale took so long. We didn’t pick up the keys until ten days before Christmas. Having three children and still living in the property was far from ideal, but we managed to get the majority of the structural work done within this period by working most days from 8am to midnight, with the help of family members and a team of workmen who removed the staircase, built partition walls and did the plastering.

“We got one room decorated and put up a Christmas tree at 8am on Christmas morning, so the kids wouldn’t be disappointed.”

The kitchen from the other side of the house had to be removed, as did the staircase.

“This was an absolute nightmare, as the staircase was full of soot which had built up over the past 180 years. The whole house was covered in a two-inch black layer of dust – not ideal, particularly as the workmen hadn’t covered our furniture.”

Judging by the end result, it was worth it. The ground floor now has a cloakroom, lounge, sitting room with cast iron fireplace, living room, dining room with multi-fuel burner in a stone fireplace, utility room and fitted kitchen with built-in oven and hob, plus breakfast area. There are two cellars, while upstairs are a master bedroom with en-suite, three further bedrooms and a family bathroom.

“My favourite room is the ‘best’ sitting room, as it is dual-aspect which makes it a lovely sunny room. There’s no TV in there, so it is of no interest to the kids, who leave us alone to get a bit of peace and quiet.”

The property was sandblasted to remove the pebble dash and reveal the original Yorkshire stone.

“We’ve had a stone outbuilding built, the driveway block-paved and built a pond,” says Jenny. “We have a landscaped garden with a massive decked area which is ideal for barbecues.”

The Old Tannery in Pendragon Lane, BD2, is on the market for £349,950 with Bairstow Eves, Bradford, tel (01274) 393955, web www.bairstoweves.co.uk