More than 900ft above sea level, two miles from the Yorkshire/ Lancashire border, lies the World From Rough Stones House.

It looks like an old stone-built cottage that has been there a few hundred years - but on closer inspection it tells a different story.

It is home to engineer and boilermaker Alan McEwen whose passion for the steam-powered era lies behind every nook and cranny. It has taken him six years to build the house, using materials he found in old mills, churches, schools, breweries, reclamation yards and demolition sites all over the North. Every stone flag tells a story.

The house stands on the site of his business premises, HA McEwen (Boiler Repairs) Ltd at Farling Top, Cowling. Alan moved it there from his native Lancashire nearly 40 years ago after falling in love with the Keighley and Worth Valley locomotives used in The Railway Children. Today it pays tribute to a long-gone era, when steam ruled and engineering was bold and brash.

Walking on to the site is like stepping into the past. It's a steam enthusiast's dream; many of them have visited the premises, including the late master steeplejack and TV presenter Fred Dibnah, right, who was a good friend of Alan's. Alan has appeared on TV programmes about Fred and has himself been featured on Yorkshire Television's Dales Diary and Channel 4's Scrapheap Challenge.

Alan has been in the business nearly 50 years, working across the country in mills, breweries, dyehouses and on railway and ship repair work. He set up his business in 1968, moving it from Middleton to Cowling two years later. Today it's one of a handful with the specialist skills to repair industrial and vintage boilers, preserving Britain's steam engine heritage. Commissions come from across the country, including the York Railway Museum and Beamish in County Durham.

In the yard lies an assortment of steam engine boilers and an engine house built by Alan, which is home to a collection of rare Victorian steam engines and artefacts.

The House From Rough Stones offers Alan peace to work. In his study, sprawled out across an old desk, retrieved from a Nelson mill, is a design he's working on for a Clyde-type steam-boat boiler which will power a new boat owned by the Shropshire Steam Boat Company for passenger trips on the meres.

Alan shares the house with his wife, Christine. "We built it over nights, weekends and holidays in gales, snow and fog - it's been a labour of love," says Alan. "It's part of the landscape, made from materials that blend in with the area. When you see it in the distance it looks like it's been here a long time, I'm proud of that. I've always been interested in heritage and restoration and I wanted to incorporate that into the house."

Even some of the trees and shrubs Alan has planted around his home were retrieved as saplings from old railways and mill sites.

He has gone to painstaking detail to make the house feel old, even building uneven walls. "People think it's a converted barn, they can't believe it was built from scratch" he says.

His passion for engineering is everywhere, not least in the recurring archways. Two arched windows either side of the fireplace overlook magnificent views of rolling hills, and dividing the main living area is a huge stone archway retrieved from Storres Hall, a former mental hospital near Holmfirth. Above that is a stained glass arch set in stone from a Wigan mill.

"Arches form the basics of civil engineering," says Alan. "Engine houses in mills had arched windows to let in maximum light and to get machinery in and out." On the floor lie flagstones from a Blackburn weaving shed and the walls are made of stonework from old mills, (look closely and there are scour marks caused by ropes). Two stone columns either side of the room once formed the entrance to an Elland mill, on top of each are Victorian cast iron spandrels Alan found rusting in mud on a Welsh hillside. They were once part of the roof of a railway station on the Welshpool and Newtown Railway.

The 25ft high arched fireplace was constructed from stones from a Rochdale mill. "I remember the mill from when I was a boy, now it's part of my home," says Alan. A huge cast-iron log-burning stove burns wood from demolition sources. "Everything is recycled here," smiles Alan.

On the walls are brass-makers plates from mill engines and railway locomotives, some 100 years old. There are huge paintings of textile mills which once adorned mill boardrooms, and a framed notice from Cravens Mill, Keighley, found by Alan when he climbed the mill tower 20 years ago with his son Alasdair, then four. Today Alasdair is works director of the company.

Also on the wall hangs a rare carved-stone cornucopia thought to be an early 19th century shop or inn sign.

Alan tells a tale behind every piece of stone, timber and cast iron. "When I find materials I know instinctively what I can use them for," he says. The kitchen floor is made from Staffordshire Blues - engineering bricks, used to build railway viaducts - the pine beams came from a Lancaster paper mill and the solid kitchen units are made from recycled pine and oak timber. The 1850 larder cabinets were originally in a Cheshire school, while sturdy bookshelves are made from 100-year-old timber from a Lancashire brewery.

Heavy wooden doors came from a Bingley church and Alan had other doors in the house made to the same design, using Victorian timber he rescued from a carpet mill.

In the stone hallway, resembling a castle dungeon, the floor is made from 110-year-old maple Parquet wood block sourced from an old Manchester post office. In the bathroom is a beautiful Victorian cast-iron roll-top bath and a washbasin Alan made from an Art Deco copper bowl and a pair of antique brass taps.

As a boy, Alan and his pal visited an old paper mill to watch the steam locomotives. "We'd share a can of tea with the locomotive shunter and he let us coal and water his engines," says Alan. "One day there was an ear-splitting din from the paper-mill boiler house. The shunter said it was boilermakers repairing one of the Lancashire boilers, he took us in and introduced us to a man with a shock of ginger hair called Carrot. We hit it off and he asked if I fancied trying as an apprentice boilermaker at his firm, Pheonix Boilermakers."

Alan did just that and worked there for six years. In 1968 he formed a one-man boiler repair business "with no vice, no truck, not even a telephone" and today the company is a leading name in industrial boiler engineering, particularly in steam railway locomotive and traction engine work.

The firm is currently working on the re-build of a steam railway locomotive boiler from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Barton-Wright 752 which will run on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. It's close to Alan's heart because it was the first railway locomotive he worked on, after setting up on his own.

Alan's next project at home is to build a yard from old mill flagstones and 170-year-old bricks and complete a stone wall made from oil-soaked engine beds sourced from a local mill and other stones from a Rochdale vinegar brewery.

Alan would like to hear from anyone embarking on their own "grand design."

"If anyone is searching for old building materials such as pine beams, unusual pieces of carved stone or interesting pieces of machinery, architectural antiques or stained glass I'd be pleased to give advice," he says. "I can advise on locating and using all types of reclaimed building materials."

Ring Alan on 07971 906105 or (01535) 637153 evenings, email lankyboilermaker@btconnect.com or visit www.mcbo.co.uk