Article from Cornerstone, members' magazine of SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings)............ Elmley Castle Monuments

 

 

Buckland Newton

The Church of the Holy Rood, Buckland Newton Chest Tomb

We come across many different challenges in our line of work and this monument, be it small, is no different! Upon arrival to site we found that a rather large elder tree was growing up through the middle of the west end, the monument was sinking into the ground, a section of the lid was missing along with a side panel and the stonework was spalled all over the place from the iron cramps.

 

The Strachey team assigned to the job were Chris Barraclough, Kerry Scrimgeour and Lisa Etherton.

First job was the dismantle, Below Chris straps up the lid for lifting.

 

 With the lid safely out of the way, work can begin!

The monument needs to be completely dismantled and moved out of the way so that the excavation can be carried out. We hope to find the missing bits of stone. Unless they have ended up in somebody's garden!? Has been known!

... as thought, sections of the stonework were found.

Here's what a root can do to a bit of stone, given enough time. Textbook.

The part of the job that was not so expected was the battle that the tree stump gave!

Poor Chris...







Eventually, after a lot of digging and with the help from the lifting equipment....

 Chris Won!

So, the foundations were excavated and most of the sections of stone that were missing were found. Good news for the monument!



The hole was filled and compacted and a concrete block course was laid for the rebuilding of the plinth course.

Once the plinth course has been laid, the stones are dog cramped together with stainless steel as replacements to the corroding iron cramps that were found. This makes for a solid base in which to rebuild the rest of the monument.

The dirty looking side panel was found almost buried.. amazing huh?!

Kerry cleans up all the stones ready for re fixing.

Removing all the remnants or iron cramps and old mortars. Even though the cramp itself has corroded away, the dog ends within the stones will continue to corrode and expand and can cause future damage. This is why we make sure ALL iron is removed!









The best bit about this particular chest tomb are the front and back semi circular ends. Once cleaned up and repaired, the carving really sprung to life. The difference below is remarkable. Check back to the first photos!

The front and back sections are then cramped to the side panels using stainless steel fixed in lime.


This allows the work to be reversible without causing further damage to the monument in the future.

Here's a picture of the carving at the rear of the monument. Its so good, unfortunately it will very rarely get seen.

That's why I'm making sure that its seen here!


























Another course of stone is bedded and cramped and we are ready for the lid.

Its always useful to have Kerry on site. As a mason, she can very quickly produce the parts of the monument that were not found.

Two sections of the top course were missing and re carved on site by Kerry in Chilmark stone to make the course profile read all the way around the monument.

As the lid is in two pieces, it was felt that the broken end could benefit from further support from the floor to prevent any future possible stress fracture or breakage. A simple pier of concrete blocks and the lid is fully supported.

Final adjustments! Cant.. Quite.. See..

Looks bob on from here!






The picture below is how it stands now.

I think the guys have outdone themselves. What a fantastic job.

The before and after photos shows what can be done to save these wonderful monuments from borderline disrepair back to its originally intended beauty. We hope this one will stand strong for hundreds of years to come.