Grand Designs 14x8

Revisited – Creuse, France: 19th Century Manor House

Kevin McCloud returns to a remote part of France and a restoration project of a dilapidated manor house started back in 2003 by Denise Daniel and Doug Ibbs.

When Denise Daniel and Doug Ibbs gave up everything in the UK to start a new life in a remote part of central France, they couldn’t have known what was ahead of them.

Most people would have regretted falling in love with a massive, dilapidated manor house with just four crumbling walls and half a roof, but not Doug and Deni.

This impressive, extraordinary and utterly determined couple rolled up their sleeves and slogged away day and night, doing everything themselves, year after year, until slowly but surely they created a magnificent edifice out of the ruins they bought off the internet.