What am I going on about? I don't think Northumberland had any colour rose named after it. If I remember correctly White Roses were the emblem of Yorkshire and Red Roses the emblem of Lancashire -- I hope I've got that right. Right or wrong, today I was in a very substantial house built in the Edwardian era, so there were no Roses about. The house was vacant, but I believe had been occupied for the past 40 or so years by the same family who had loosely converted it into two units. There was no planning consent for this work and according to records, it was rated as one house. That means of course no building regulation is required for its reversion back into a single unit though in fairness of course this only means removing one door. The house is substantial, and although a bomb exploded nearby during the last war there was no evidence of any significant movement in the property which I considered to be recent. There is an argument to consider stripping and re-felting the roof, but it could be renovated just by lifting and resetting hip and Ridge tiles and renewing the linings to the Valley gutters. The house will need significant money spending on it but at least my Clients can put their own stamp on it, and maybe a rose here or there…   more »