Tim Lowe, a former London finance professional, has spent 15 years and an undisclosed but substantial sum restoring the Grade II* listed Great House in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire. The property, which had no electricity, no plumbing, and a badly compromised roof when he bought it, is now a luxury holiday let sleeping up to ten guests.
The Search for a Heritage Project
In the early 1990s, Lowe would scan lists of 'buildings at risk', dreaming of saving one. While viewing another property in Carmarthenshire, he was directed to Great House. 'I'd never heard of Laugharne,' he said. 'It looked like the kind of place that's really off the beaten track.' Despite being Welsh, he worried about his accent: 'I speak with a posh accent, so I didn't think anyone would believe me if I went to local pubs and said I'm as Welsh as you are.'
Upon arrival, he was captivated. 'There's wonderful Georgian as well as Regency houses, but I immediately knew which building was Great House. It was raining and dull, but I saw it and I thought, wow, that's a big old chunk of house; I instantly loved it.'
A Daunting Purchase
The then-owner, Johnny Coates, told Lowe the house had been on the market for over 15 years and 'no-one would touch it'. Lowe recalled: 'It was quite down at heel, but still a grand house. They had moved out because the costs of trying to make it viable again would just be too much.' Despite his first bonus from his London career, he lacked sufficient funds and struggled to find a building society willing to mortgage the wreck. Eventually, his broker succeeded.
Lowe described the state of the house: 'It hadn't been lived in for a long time. There was no electricity, no plumbing actually, there was one bath and a couple of rooms that had a few sockets and a ceiling light, but they were probably not that safe. Some contractors had ripped the family off, so the roof had been badly compromised, there were buckets everywhere.'
Years of Restoration
Lowe camped in the house in a sleeping bag for about three years. The first major job was the vast roof, which required a specialist conservation architect, Peter Holden, due to the Grade II* listing. Raising money for the roof took the first four years of ownership. The house had been a house of multiple occupancy (HMO), so Lowe removed modern partitioning and reinstated the original Georgian plan. The team replaced most windows and installed all bathrooms, a process that took another two years. 'By the end of about six years we had it wind and watertight, sort of, and you could have potentially lived in it, but by then I was financially exhausted and had to save for the next phase,' he said.
Discoveries and Challenges
Standout moments included unblocking the inglenook fireplace in the dining room and opening up the staircase from the basement lounge to the street above, allowing light to cascade through the space for the first time in 300 years. Lowe also found a well in the garden: 'We had a guy in with a digger, and he took about 12 inches off the top of the ground and found no floor but a well! We opened it up and it was mad; we found an old urinal, broken bikes, children's prams – it seems everything ended up going down the well.'
Other finds included a floor-standing hairdryer from a former hairdressing salon, beard trimmers, tiny mice skeletons, broken glass thought to be used to ward off evil spirits, and a 'green man type of witchcraft carving'. Lowe insisted that 'nothing original ever leaves the house, and everything that is integral to the house goes back into the house, somewhere, even if used in a different way.'
The Result: A Thriving Holiday Let
Now, Great House operates as a holiday let with five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a social kitchen, lounge diner in the basement, a billiards and TV space in the attic, and a private rear garden with a heated swimming pool and terrace. Prices start from £295 per night. Lowe said: 'Sometimes I suggest guests go out into the garden at night and look up at the stars, they are amazing, and also look through the massive window on the half-landing to see the arches at the top of the stairs lit by moonlight.'
Reflecting on the journey, Lowe added: 'That's the joy of old houses, they're idiosyncratic, there's no house the same as another. And they reward you – the more time you spend in it, the more it rewards you. It's been an epic journey but I wouldn't change a thing, I feel the same way about the house now as I did the first moment I saw her; absolute love.'
