Around 1580 a little oak house was built at Nether High, a stones throw away from the vast medieval Tithe Barn at Alciston Court Farm. For centuries life inside would have revolved around a fire lit in an open smoke bay. Since it was built, Nether High has been extended and adjusted significantly, yet in 2019 when new owners moved in the smoke bay was still there and remains their fireplace. Our work has two ambitions. First, to reveal and restore the external timbers of the smoke bay that have been covered and damaged. Second, to reinstate a sense of a working character in the house by building a small bootroom, an outside lavatory and a bigger kitchen with doors that open to a yard below the branches of a small but ancient wood. We applied for listed building consent and planning was granted in January 2020.