In a recent Property of the Week feature, we inadvertently referred to “the late Peggy Hewitt”, author, journalist and broadcaster.

We are happy to hear that, in fact, Mrs Hewitt is alive and well, and living near Perth in Scotland.

Here, Peggy recalls life at her former home in Oldfield, near Keighley: I was surprised, and a bit disconcerted, to learn of my death as mentioned in the Telegraph & Argus on October 21. Then I started to laugh.

The news reached me a little late, from a cousin living near Keighley, as I now live in Scotland. I wonder if my Christmas card count will be down a bit this year… It all started with Oldfield House, that lovely old building on the edge of the ‘Bronte Moors’. Parts of it date back to 1667, but we stood at its front door one bleak January day with sleet swirling around us nearly 40 years ago, and decided it was the place for us, even before we looked inside.

Tom and I and our three children lived in a caravan in the garden for weeks while we more or less gutted it to remove the ‘modernisation’ and also to return it to its period beauty.

When we could stand it no longer, we moved in and lived in the shell. As well as inviting us for coffee, our neighbours asked us round for baths!

We did most of the demolition work ourselves – Tom visited Airedale Hospital with two broken ribs and I was whipped in blinded by quicklime in my eyes after an old ceiling collapsed on me – but professionals did the restoration work.

And when it was don,e how we loved it, especially at Christmas. There was a huge tree and log fires, holly and parties and games and music. My cousin said it was like visiting Dr Dolittle, we had so many pets.

James Mitchell, professional landscape gardener and tree expert, moved into Oldfield House in 1820 and added the stylish new wing. We often felt him there as a benign presence.

He is buried in the field below the garden, and the story of his last resting place is local legend. A carved headstone on his grave reads, ‘In Memory of James Mitchell, late Proprietor and Occupier of Oldfield House, who died on the 27th day of January, 1835, aged 72 years’.

Was it the 27th day of January many years later that we stood on that doorstep for the first time? It could have been.

So hello there, James. From one late Proprietor and Occupier of Oldfield House, to another. We meet at last.