Nice photographs J Jane, you have captured the atmosphere of the place nicely. A search of the Local Council's planning applications/grants should tell you about any future building works. The relevant information will be easily found via the council's web site.
A little bit of useless information in connection with your husband's observation on the bent chimney. In old properties that were built with Lime Mortar and used predominately coal for heating etc, the chimneys will always lean/bend into the prevailing wind. Why this happens is easily explained - The prevailing wind cools one side of the chimney more than the other, this results in more acidic gases condensing on the cooler side of the flue interior. The resulting larger amount of acid condensate degrades the lime mortar more quickly, thus allowing the weight of the bricks/stonework above to slowly crush the now powdery mortar. Because the mortar is still firm and rigid on the warmer side, the chimney structure will eventually bend or lean.
Chimneys are well known for becoming unsafe, but you can get some nasty surprises when you actually get up close. My neighbor and myself rebuilt our 250 year old examples last summer - there was no mortar left on the sides facing the prevailing wind, the stacks were only standing because they were built using 3ft x 1ft x 1ft stone blocks and did not extend far above the roof ridge.
As I said a bit of nonsense, but perhaps worth remembering if you live in or own an old property with tall stacks!
