Thanks for your comments so far, Im going to get it up at the weekend and have a proper look at the extent of rot, it looks as though the car was used to tow a boat in and out of water in a previous life as the backend seems like a different car to the front. The better half is seeing this as...

So I've had my first Landrover, a Disco 2, for just over a year now and she's had her fair share of problems that have been a great learning experience for me. Alas the latest problem could be one step to far - pulled over the other day because of a loud rattling noise when driving to see this...