A piece of history: ruins of 300-year-old cottage perfectly preserved inside modern home - complete with rotting plaster and a dead bat

Restorations of historic properties are often a labour of love, but it's rare to find one so painstakingly preserved that the cobwebs, dead ivy and even an old bird's nest remain intact.

Designer David Connor and architect Kate Darby joined forces to convert a crumbling 300-year-old cottage in rural Leominster, Herefordshire, and the result is a Riba award-winning project that has kept these ruins intact.

The 18th-century remains of Croft Lodge Studio sat in the grounds of the husband and wife duo's family home on Bircher Common.

They decided to get to work on what would be one of their most exciting projects after a conservation officer advised them that if the rotting house fell down, they might never get permission to build on the site again.

Rather than repair it, they were determined to keep it exactly as it was, encasing the ruins in a new steel frame clad in a black corrugated iron shell to protect them from further damage by the elements.

This means that in most places there are now two walls, two windows and two roofs, so the old home remains encased within its modern shell, with the original flaky plaster and decaying timber left fully exposed to enjoy.

The structure of the cottage has otherwise been left untouched, with the contrast of fresh and crisp white walls and a simple black metal staircase allowing the abandoned beauty of the ruins to take the spotlight.

While the couple defend the extreme approach they took to preservation - a preserved bat is still in residence in the living room - they do admit it took two years before the smell faded.

“Conservation involves keeping old stuff, but we didn't just keep old stuff, we kept everything,” says David, who handmade the spooky clay heads on display in the bread oven. “We didn't make a moral judgment about anything; everything about the ruins became valuable. I tried to keep the ivy alive, but it died.”

It took four years to finish the project but as the pair live in the finished house next door, time was not critical. Building it themselves with the help of contractors helped keep the cost at about £160,000. The floors were dug out by hand and laid over with concrete, while building the outer walls proved a unique challenge as they could only be accessed from one side.

“If you imagine there's an old crumbling wall and you have to build another steel and timber wall 100 millimetres away from it, that's difficult and therefore expensive.”

The studio is not as chillingly cold as it looks in the atmospheric photos: heating comes from two woodburning stoves - one fitted into an original brick fireplace - and fuel is sourced from the surrounding forest, while triple-glazed doors and windows provide high quality insulation throughout.

Electricity comes from solar panels on the south-facing roof and 100 millimetres of conductive glycol-filled piping beneath the iron sheets acts as a solar collector for the hot water system in summer.

The 1,238 sq ft building comprises a working studio, living room and kitchen with a bedroom and bathroom overhead. The layout has been specially designed for easy conversion into a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home, but David and Kate have no plans to sell it.

Surprisingly, guests are not freaked out by the cottage and have only passed on positive feedback about staying there. “Strangely, nobody finds it spooky,” says David. “You'd think it would be at night. Kate and I haven't stayed there yet, but that's only because our bed is next door. Our two children wanted to move in.”

The couple find that curious passers-by are enthralled by the cottage and its story. “People walking on the common can see the perfect ruins through the windows. If I see them looking, I invite them in to explain it to them. I want locals to be on our side and to like it,” says David.

“It helps that the form and materials on the outside are traditional and take the shape of the cottage underneath. Corrugated iron is familiar in the countryside as it's been used for barns, farm buildings since the late 19th century, so it isn't controversial. People are often amazed.”

Contact David Connor on djc@davidconnordesign.co.uk or Kate Darby on kate@katedarby.com for more details.