I've been following this interesting thread and considering some of the points that have been raised.
Last summer, I was involved in excavating a similar ruin, that of an old coach house and stables, same sort of age and condition but covering a larger area, though the remaining standing walls were not quite so tall. These stables belong to the National Trust and the question has been; what to do with the ruins now they're uncovered. The problems with preserving ruins like these (both the cottage and the stables) are numerous. It costs quite a lot of money to stabilise and protect walls which have no roof over, left in the British weather the interior plaster will soon drop off and the mortar will soon crumble from freeze-thaw. The site is open to vandalism and pilfering which could leave the ruins in a dangerous condition for other visitors. In the particular case of the cottage, there is the nuisance problem which may affect the local villagers from the "occultists". Is there any point in saving ruins like these? - casual visitors can't interpret them and it costs money to design, erect and maintain interpretation boards yet the ruins won't generate any money from entrance fees etc. The cottage ruins would have remained covered if the water company had not wanted to do the flood prevention works - at least now they have been revealed and recorded and the materials can be partly reused in the form of walling etc. which will continue the tradition of reuse and recycling of the stones that seems to have been going on for 4 or 500 years at least. Obviously I'm not suggesting that our old building heritage should be ignored or lost, but there comes a point when the costs of preservation outweigh the benefits.....
As regards the stables, the Nat Trust has covered them over to protect them while the great and the good ponder what to do next......
