The bell tower of this beautiful Saxon church - with Norman additions - had a leaky roof and crumbling plasterwork. Together with a new set of bells, we have overhauled the roof and re-pointed and limewashed the interior of the tower ...
Outside work...
This is a most unusual example of a stone building which still retains some
of the original exterior hydraulic lime render which has protected the building for centuries. The scaffold was erected in July 2006
to allow essential repairs to the lead work and tiles of the tower roof.
Repointing the walls...
Repointing work has been going on for some time now. We have almost completely raked out the external walls, being careful to preserve the remnants of the exterior render which still remain. These will be sealed and grouted with lime putty to ensure their survival.
Lime mortar has been specially blended and mixed to ensure a close match with the original.
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Raking out the walls was, in places made quite difficult because over the years, cement mortar has been inappropriately used for patch repairs. Some of this is so hard that to remove it, we have nearly had to remove the stones themselves. The joints are filled with mortar and brushed clean so the stone sits flush with the mortar but is not covered by it. Surviving fragments of the original render will be edged with lime putty to prevent further weathering, and where loose, we inject a lime putty grout to re-bind the render to the wall.
The original mortar was a reddish colour - derived from weathering of the local dolerite to a reddish clay. We have used natural pigments to produce a reddish tinge, and added coarse river grit to obtain a close match with the original material, which would have been dug from the fields around the church, and mixed with grit from the river. |
Inside the bell tower...
The interior of the tower remained largely untouched for many years. A decision was made to overhaul the tower, and install
a restored set of bells. At the same time it was decided to strip and clean the interior. We removed
nearly a tonne of crumbling lime plaster and mortar, together with damaged lath and plaster on the wall between
the tower and knave. The walls were re-pointed using specially matched hydraulic lime mortar, and the entire
bottom section lime washed with up to 6 coats of limewash.
Below...
Rotten lath to the bottom left of the Norman arch, and the arch itself before restoration...
Below...
The finished product - up to 6 coats of limewash applied over a period of 3 to 4 weeks. Flaking lime, old
acrylic paint and crumbling mortar have been removed and all the stonework re-pointed. The rotten lath work to the left
of the Norman archway has been repaired and re-plastered. Doors have been given a coat of paint, and the area is ready for re-hanging of the bells.
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One of the six bells waiting to be re-hung. This one is so heavy that two strong men can't even move it off the floor. 3 new bells are being cast to complete the peal. The frame on which the bells are to be hung is substantial for obvious reasons.
We hope to feature the lifting operation on the website as it happens next month, following a blessing of the new bells.
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The new Bells arrived...!
Bell Master, Bill with the commemorative bell bearing the names of the Church Wardens - Colin Porter and Maggie Teague,
who organised the restoration work.
Lifting the bells into position...
The massive steel frame on which the bells sit, is held in place by several tonnes of concrete poured
as a ringbeam around the walls of the tower. Each bell is tuned by removing tiny amounts of swarf from the inside, until the exact tone is reached.
The earliest surviving bell forming part of the peal was cast in 1636 -a sobering thought to imagine the technology that existed
even then, to cast such huge pieces of bronze...
