Above and beyond

Passed down the generations, this industrial reservoir building in Hereford eventually found a new life, thanks to the vision and dedication of a young family

- Teresa Conway

The story of Rosa and Craig’s unusual home began over a century ago when a reservoir building was embedded into a hillside spring near the village of Clifford in Hereford. Constructed from local stone and brick, and topped with a corrugated tin roof, it was used to store water for the trains, which were then steam-powered. Fast forward to the 1970s when it was decommissioned and subsequently bought by a man who had fallen in love with the landscape it sat in. He had a dream of one day giving the “musty half-building” a second life as a family home that would be nestled into the hills with uninterrupted views of the valley below. Working tirelessly, and fuelled by endless cups of tea, Rosa’s grandfather, Leo, emptied the reservoir pits of their slurry of mud.

When he was too old to continue, Leo passed his mantle to Rosa by gifting her the land. “Rosa grew up in the area and had spent many evenings and weekends up by the reservoir, building dens and helping out with general maintenance to keep it looking fabulous,” says Rosa’s husband Craig. “I have been welcomed into the family and feel like it has become part of me, too. I had many conversations with Rosa’s granddad about this place in his later years before he passed away, which sadly happened just after the project had started.”