Barrowby sits on its hill two miles west of Grantham, looking out over the Vale of Belvoir. The name goes back to the Domesday Book, recorded as Bergebi, roughly "village on the hill", and its Grade I listed church of All Saints was raised in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries from ironstone and limestone. Those two stones still set the character of the older village, and they shape how its buildings handle moisture.
Ironstone, the rusty-brown local stone seen in the church and the village's older walls, is noticeably porous. It drinks in wind-driven rain on exposed elevations, and on Barrowby's hilltop there is plenty of that, particularly from the west across the open Vale. Limestone is denser but depends on its lime mortar joints to move moisture out of the wall. In both cases the wrong modern repair, a hard cement pointing job or an impermeable paint, stops the wall breathing and pushes moisture inwards, where it appears as damp patches, flaking plaster and mould.
The village is far from all period stock. Barrowby has grown steadily, and the newer developments on its Grantham side, together with twentieth-century housing through the village, are conventional cavity-wall construction. There the usual suspects apply: bridged cavities, failed wall ties letting damp track across, blocked weep holes, condensation in cold corner rooms, and gutters quietly saturating a gable.
Because the answer differs so much between an ironstone cottage and a recent estate house, diagnosis comes first. The vetted specialist inspects, explains the cause in plain terms and quotes for a remedy suited to the construction, breathable materials for the old stock, standard remedial work for the new. Book through the contact page or start with a damp survey.