Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Looking for a castle in Southern France?

I'm just in the process of refurbishing our main bedroom and its ensuite........I'm in the process of taking the opportunity of lifting the wooden floors up and putting lots of insulation material between the joists, I'll probably have the chimney bricked up and blocked off...still keeping the ornamental fireplace (we don't use it).

Every room that we refurbish we do exactly the same, up come the floor boards and lots of insulation material between the joists. We note the house warms up quicker when the heating comes on and stays warmer for longer, but most importantly the level of draughts is diminishing....mind you with a house with 24 air bricks, the cavities are well ventilated and the windy cold sea breezes still represent a challenge from time to time, we can hear when the tide turns, down our chimney!

I think That blocking chimneys may have negative consequences, re damp and wall staining, though don`t know for sure.

I removed two double chimneys completely, and I put a gas cap on the one chimney left in use, and that chimney is not in regular use. With just the gas cap in place and without the open fire on, the room feels overall warmer than before when it had an open 10" bore chimney pot.

Another nice chateau with a Morgan



Chateau de Puyrigaud

I have a couple more Morgan/chateau pics. If there is any interest, I will dig them out. Your pic looks like one of those Chateaus where the rooms are interlinked in a long line Peter..?

Yes, I appreciate the potential problems with damp from a sealed chimney, I'm not too concerned as long as I outlast it, anyway the area is forecast to be inundated by the rising sea levels by 2050, so if I'm (hopefully) still around a damp chimney will be the least of my problems! I feel sorry for those poor souls with brand new properties (with long mortgages) built on a local reclaimed/drained mere that are the first forecast to be inundated by the sea.

Even within the next decade or so there are nearby built up areas that are going to be lost, not due to typical seaside cliff erosion but simply due to rising sea levels, over-whelming any sea defences and by flooding local tidal rivers and flood plains. It will be a bit of a bummer if your into golf and the British Open as the Royal Lytham golf course (just down the road) will disappear.

No. On the ground floor here is a corridor between the main rooms at the front and what are now guest rooms and an office at the rear. On the upper floor there is a a corridor running the length of the wing at the front and the guest rooms are off the at corridor towards the rear. The top floor is not as deep as the ground floor, so perhaps the ground floor was extended to the rear at some point.

The chateau was originally on 3 sides of a square with 2 round towers at the front and 2 square towers at the back offset towards the centre of the base of the square. At some point the base of the square joining the two square towers was demolished. The wing matching the residential wing on the other side of the square was probably used as stables and the round tower on that side was a pigeon house (providing eggs and pigeons for the table). It was almost in ruins when we first saw it but has now been completely renovated to provide space and catering facilities for wedding receptions, etc.

My description probably makes sense if you look at the Google Maps screenshot below.



Our friends Véronique and Philippe are lovely people and Morgan owners are particularly welcome. If you go there don't forget to ask about a visit to a local small producer of a wonderful cognac, Domaine des Roussets of Sophie and Michel Richard.

What a beautiful property and car!

Many thanks for the extended details on the Chateau that you stayed at Peter. Historical architecture is ever of interest to me. As I typed we have stayed at a few and one in particular run by titled owners which we stayed at on two occasions over the years having travelled down to LM for the 24 hrs, many happy memories come flooding back as a result of this thread...(-:

JohnHarris, I have been upgrading my place for over 40 years with pick, shovel and hammer in hand, were it not for that my Morgan would have had more miles on the clock...(-: I know where you are coming from when you type of the effect of time money and care invested into any task on one`s property considered against it`s longevity which when younger would be in terms of quality as a priority, and with the passage of time the contemplation that the place will well outlast us begins to be more considered relative to costings of maintenance and repairs.. which can alter one`s sense of priorities a tad. However having typed that I spent much of the Winter months of 2021 into 2022 up on my roofs manually removing moss from the concrete roof tiles... which seems less than wise for someone on the wrong side of 70..! Being circa 300 ft up above sea level on the side of a valley, at least I do not need to worry about sea levels... Though I do have a septic tank.... There is always something..

Just another senior moment one of many... Apologies.

On the off chance that anyone out there read that which I typed when I was prattling on about the cost of heating chateaus, and presenting the example of my long term self build project, relative to aspects of it`s design as being somewhat different in terms of a rough outline of the benefit of insulation and efficient heating systems. I suspect that there would have been a degree of confusion..?

I had typed :-

"Never thought of as any part of the design was that even mid Winter with snow on the ground, we would be too warm in the sun room, and thus open the doors to the adjoining rooms not only to cool the sun room down, but to circulate heat around the rest of the extension.. In time becoming aware of the effect of the insulation in the new extension in terms of average room temperatures, as part of a refurb of the existing house, I insulated all the external facing interior walls, upgraded to modern rads, boiler, double glazing and loft insulation. We and now can heat the place to a reasonable temperature in every room for a similar cost that which we paid in energy bills for the original and smaller house in past years....

Those folk from Insulate Britain may have the right idea, even if they upset folk considerably trying to get the point across..?" end of quote.

The important fact that I forgot to add was that advantage was gained only on SUNNY Winter days by use of the thermal gain from the sun beaming through the South facing sun room windows, which then was used to heat the rest of the build by natural convection when all the interlinking doors were left opened, and in time causing each of the room thermostats to reduce their demand on the boiler, to the extent it would shut down. Of course the efficiency of the insulation equated to retaining that heat somewhat longer too.

If I could choose I would go for this.
Happened to encounter it in the south of France in 2017



Especially the garden is interesting unfortunately no swimming pool but what a garden.
I was drawn in by the noise and because the gate was open I drove in.



There were some people and the owner says that I could look around.


My god; who wouldn't want that in his back yard!



At lunchtime the owner came with the message that I could use his empty facilities with the Morgan.




Can't remember how many laps we did, I was so excited I forgot to take pictures on the track itself.



In the nearby hotel I found a book about the château and the rae's driving school with an aerial photo of the track.




Amazing Wonderful Experience.