Structurally suspect

Today Richard Cross, a structural engineer came to advise us if we could remove the wall behind him, and part of a chimney breast (not pictured) to make a larger kitchen space.

Here he is looking at the plans for an extension in 1983 that we'd got with the deeds to give him some clues.

Seem the answer is we still don't know, since after poking around in the attic, he said part of the chimney construction is of 'Clayblock' which is not as solid as brick.  This makes removing the chimney breast doubtful which is annoying, but then it made him wonder whether the outside walls of the house are also Clayblock.... in which case it would be unwise to remove any of the current structural support!

So, the next step is to get a builder to knock holes in our kitchen walls to find out....

Aarrgghh!