Cool stone floors for summer, a wood-burning stove for winter

This 500-year old house shows that air conditioning is not the only way to stay cool in the heat. Today it is 36 degrees centigrade outside and 22 degrees in the stone-floored study of this Tudor holiday house. Original flagstone floors – unmoved since they were laid and potentially hiding all sorts of secrets – keep the same rooms cool in summer that are made cosy in winter with a wood-burning stove and central heating driven by an air source heat pump.

Although two sides of the holiday house and the roof structure are the original timber frame, two sides were converted to local, coursed, blue lias stone, only a few generations after the house was built, so possibly still Tudor. These stone walls also help keep the house cool, buffering heat across summer and winter. For that matter, the thick curtains and oak shutters do much the same job and offer another passive, environmentally-friendly way to stay cool.

Wisson Hill’s north-facing study is the coolest room in the summer, comfortably 10 degrees lower than the outside temperature on a hot day, with all stone walls. The east wall, behind the collection of historic books available for guests to browse, is well over a meter thick. This room is also home to the display of finds recovered during the renovation, and is a comfortable place to reflect on which previous inhabitants may have used them.

The study, sitting room and detached brew house all have original stone floors and they are a joy to look at in detail. Here are a few of my own observations, from the 20 years I have known and loved them:

• The precision of fit of the flagstones is absolutely astonishing, particularly considering that each was hewn by hand. I have never seen a modern stone or tiled floor with the same fit and no filler, such as mortar or grout.
• Some flagstones have been recovered from the garden, making it possible to see how the stones were carved, with a precise edge to the top face and the underside cut away, presumably to help with fitting, as well as reducing labour.
• The top surface likes being walked – or danced – on, with well-used routes achieving a deep shine, with no other help.
• In my experience, it is impossible to find a suitable coating for a blue lias flagstone, given the need for the stones to breathe.
• When I arrived at Wisson Hill, these ground floor rooms were carpeted and the rubber underlay had stopped the stone breathing. Vapour was unable to escape and the flagstones had started to flake. This process has now stabilised, as evident from the photos of the flagstone floors, although some stones have lost their original patina.
• Fitting of the stones helps understanding of the house’s development, such as which walls sit on top of the stone floor and which walls it butts up to.
• All the stones are different, with their own colours, fossils and – in some cases – cracks. In fact, the big cracks in the brew house floor makes me think of the ale barrels which must have been bounced and dragged across them for centuries.
• In the few places where repairs have been needed, a spot of lime mortar does the job nicely.
• The floor is amazingly tough – it must have been to survive the ordinary life of a farmhouse for so many centuries, followed by a 20-year restoration project – but vulnerable in some ways. I was astonished to see that a potato crisp, that was accidentally dropped and trodden on, left a stain that could not be removed but seems to be gently fading. So: water good, oil bad.
• As long as the stone floor can dry out again, it is happy to get wet. Before flood defences were built around the hamlet of Barton, the River Avon flooded the house regularly. But the water comes in and it drains out again, through the small gaps between the stones and into the earth beneath. I have seen this for myself when the washing machine flooded in the brew house and it is reassuring to not have to worry about that.

So holiday guests can be confident that, whatever the conditions outside, they will always have somewhere cool enough to relax in this authentic Tudor holiday house. The house is available for weekly self-catering rental, with dogs welcome.

If struggling and stressing with unfamiliar roads, traffic jams and trying to find a car park, this historic holiday house also offers the option of transport arranged or provided for you, at cost.

Find out more about the Tudor holiday house, its history and connections with William Shakespeare, and its remarkable restoration story, with before and after photos.

Wisson Hill is a Tudor farmhouse near the Cotswolds and Stratford-upon-Avon, offering dog-friendly weekly holiday rental, with the option of stress-free transport.