Autumn gone pear-shaped

I don't feel too good after learning that my chosen thesis topic has already been covered quite well, thank you very much, by a PhD thesis written in 2005, by someone at the very college I attend, albeit in another school. It was supervised by a person who wrote an excellent book on a closely-related topic, who is not now available.
All in all, although I could try to slip my dates to the following period, it takes the shine off any attempts at originality - and that was already a slightly doubtful aspect of the whole idea.
It is no consolation that I should have checked this before now; time constraints and coursework defeated me. The library is not easily accessible and it wasn't until I opened the 2-volume thesis that I realised how very much dead-in-the-water my ideas were. It would have helped if the courses on research methods were held in this semester, so that I might have been alerted to the importance of researching previous work but they will not start until next year, by which time.....I hope, I will be writing something relevant and original already on my chosen topic.
Original thinking seems to be a real challenge for me; I feel better analysing work that has been done, but a radically different approach seems to elude me but NOW I am in search of a new topic and then I will have to see what I can do about the fresh new approach.
As it has been very difficult to get responses from people at all in this country, I am not feeling optimistic about any topics that include trying to gain access to historic houses and gardens (especially as most are now closed to the public for the next 6 months).
My coursework continues to take up most of my time but the end is in sight, with most of it completed by the end of the month. Over the long (in theory) winter break, I have to get the thing mapped out and ready for presentation in Jan /Feb, so it really is worrying to be back at square one at this point. I'm just hoping to salvage something from the wreckage of the time spent doing background reading.
Gloomy November thoughts...