A large dent in my wallet has arrived in the shape of these:
Sadly they’re mostly covered up to stop them getting damaged by builders’ boots.
Other than the central post, much of the wood to make them actually came out of the barn when we replaced the roof, including two huge pieces of oak that must have come from trees that were already hundreds of years old before they were put into the barn hundreds of years ago. Amazing to think that we could we walking between the floors on something that started growing when the first Queen Elizabeth was on the throne…
The spindles for the bannisters will be made from a mixture of ash and elm that also came out of the barn, but they’re still a work in progress…