In an astonishing feat of determination, a woman saved her historic 15th-century home from council bulldozers by taking it apart and moving it 100 miles away, piece by piece.
The Ultimate DIY Challenge
In 1969, May Savidge faced the potential destruction of her beloved home, Ware Hall in Ware, Hertfordshire. The local council planned to demolish the Elizabethan property, built around 1450, to make way for a new roundabout. Bulldozers even reached her front gate. But the then 58-year-old, with an engineering background, refused to let it happen.
Instead, she embarked on an extraordinary DIY project. She purchased a plot of land in Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, and set about dismantling her home herself. She numbered every beam and window, treating the structure like a giant jigsaw puzzle. It took a full year to take apart, and the components required 11 lorry trips to transport to the new site.
Rebuilding a Life, Brick by Brick
Living in an old caravan with her dog, May Savidge began the monumental task of reconstruction. She erected her own scaffolding and worked in all weathers. “I just won't have such a marvellous old house bulldozed into the ground,” she declared. “You certainly sleep at the end of the day,” she told a visiting TV crew about her gruelling labour.
Her story captured the public's imagination. Strangers sent money to help, with one supporter writing, “Yours is the spirit that once made Britain great.” She eventually moved into the still-unfinished house around the age of 67.
A Legacy Completed by Family
When May Savidge died in 1993, she left the incomplete house to her niece, Christine Adams. Adams dedicated the next 15 years to finishing her aunt's project, painstakingly putting the house back together and continuing with ongoing work.
This remarkable tale of perseverance is now gaining a new audience. The story, detailed in a book by Christine Adams, is being adapted into a film by director Gillies MacKinnon, ensuring that May Savidge's incredible act of saving her historic home will inspire for generations to come.
