He stopped again, head on one side. ‘Early twentieth century, I should think. When I find the full records we’ll see exactly when and, I hope, find out why they were deserted. I have a vague feeling they’ve been deserted since World War II. That’s surprising when they had such a housing crisis in Britain after the war, but I don’t think the War Office returned them to the family for a while after it ended.’

He took out his phone. ‘Wait a minute! Let’s take a photo of the whole row as it is now, before we even trample down the weeds.’

She continued to study the houses as she waited for him to finish. ‘They’ve all got large front windows. I think they might have been shops.’

‘Could be. There used to be lots of little local shops instead of these horrible, soulless shopping centres.’

‘The shopping centres are highly convenient in bad weather and when you need to buy a big load of groceries.’ She watched him take out a bundle of labelled keys and unlock the door of the first house, then hold up one hand to stop her going inside. She waited, dying to explore but knowing he was right to do this slowly and carefully.

‘There’s a dusty smell, but it doesn’t smell damp, so maybe the floor will still be sound.’ He put one foot on the floorboards in the entrance, then stamped hard, still holding on to the door frame. ‘Feels sound.’ He stepped inside and jumped up and down vigorously, still staying near the door. ‘Not a sign of sponginess.’

She moved forward and joined him inside.

‘Yes. Stay there till I’ve tested the rest.’ He stamped his way across the middle of the floor, after which he stood still and turned round on the spot, studying the ceiling and walls. ‘Doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it, apart from years of dust and cobwebs.’

‘Good.’ She went past him and opened the door at the rear of the room, looking to her right. ‘I think this must be a storeroom. It’s quite big. There’s a small barred window at the far end of it.’

He joined her as she went into the back room. ‘This would have been the kitchen and living area. And this door leads to … a bedroom and bathroom. Very modern plumbing for those days. Shouldn’t be hard to upgrade.’

‘So it’s a house and workshop or shop, with living quarters for one person.’ She stamped on the floor. ‘It feels sound in here as well.’

‘I’m still hiring an expert to check the houses out before we start renovating them. Let’s take notes and photos and move on to the next one.’

‘Just a minute! What’s this?’ She opened a door in one wall that looked like a cupboard and found some steep narrow stairs.

He grabbed her arm. ‘I’ll go first.’

With a shrug, she humoured his protectiveness and stepped back, waiting for him to get to the top.