The journey to restore

Central Lodge

This blog is about the journey from buying Central Lodge to restoring it. It will be a journey that takes a few years and I do hope you will enjoy reading about it. I and Andy can be found working at the Lodge most days and if you fancy a look round do pop in. (If the gates are open we are in.)   Janet Birch

Central Lodge Birkenhead Park


June 16th

I, Janet Birch and my partner Andy Hobson completed the purchase of Central Lodge Birkenhead Park. Walking through the gates both of us thought, ’Oh dear, what have we done!’. Before, imagining how we would restore the building was very exciting, now we had to do it and it seemed very daunting!  

June 17th

Having asked some architects to look and quote for the task of helping us design our new home we sat down looked over the quotes and chose Maggie Mullen Architects to work with us.

June 18th

The weather being fine we started working in the garden. When we first looked at the house the garden was overgrown but manageable. In the time between putting in the offer and completing the purchase the garden had grown out of all proportion.

June 19th – 24th

We had an arborist around to assess the state of the trees. Andy – who is the gardener – was hoping that most of the trees would be able to be removed so that we could start again. In the end he recommended three were saved with the rest being replaced with more appropriate trees. Lots of birch trees will be replanted which is highly appropriate as at one time they covered this area so much so Birkenhead is named after them. While the weather holds we are in the garden demolishing the overgrown shrubs

June 25th

My brother, sister-in- law and their grandchildren came round. My four year old great nephew’s first words were ‘It is very untidy ‘ as he walked through the door!

He and my great niece were very impressed with the toads in the basement, one of which their grandmother picked up to show them. They also liked the overgrown garden as they were able to find ‘secret’ paths all around the garden.  

June 16th – 30th July

We have now got into two routines. The first is governed by the weather – working in the garden when it is fine and in the house when it is raining. The second is the shape of the day – generally speaking we spend a fair amount of time at the visitors centre – for morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea.