TOWNELEY HALL, BURNLEY

The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded the Council £107,000 to complete work on preparing the restoration plan and has allocated a grant of £2 million towards the £2.8 million costs of restoring the Park over a period of five years between 2005 and 2010.

Lottery funding will be used to restore and improve Towneley Park’s historic landscape and improve facilities for visitors and will include:

 

-Restoring the ornamental gardens around the Hall
-Improving footpaths and re-surfacing car parks
-Restoring structures such as bridges, shelters and walls
-Improving toilet facilities
-Better signage and information
-Improvements to the Stables Cafe
-Improving playgrounds, seating, etc

Listed Garden Wall, Presavation

In April 2008 we were contracted to do presavation work to one part of the Garden Walls, on the grounds of Towneley Hall. This section of wall was part of a hot house for growing plants etc for the halls grounds, on the other side to this wall a 250mm cavity was built into the wall. Fires were then lit on the pictured side to provide heat. The wall is constructed from hand made bricks bedded on lime mortar, with a stone flag capping stone. The wall has not been maintained very well and is in a poor condition, the wall has moved slightly and has a 50mm crack around the centre. The works include removing the top 10 course of brick and rebuild with lime mortar, removing all plant life and growth.

This project is currently in progress and will be uploaded shortly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lime Pointing

 

Toby Jug Tea Shop Whalley Lancashire

 

In summer 2007 we were contracted to re-point with lime putty based mortar the front elevation of the Toby Jog Tea Shop in Whalley Lancashire. The elevation had been pointed around 20-25 years ago with a cement based mortar, which had serverally damaged the soft Lancashire sand stone. The original lime mortar was in good condition for its age, the building was first built about <1660. There was a large amount of voids in the lime mortar joints, we filled these with a lime putty based mortar, this was used because of the soft Lancashire sand stone the building is constructed from. The heat of the summer months (when it was not rainning) ment we had to sheet the elevation with hessian sheets to prevent the lime mortar for drying to quickly, you can see on the picture (left) the hessian sheeting slowing the water evaporation for the lime mortar.

On this project we also remove the plastic guttering and fasica board and replaced it with a more traditional Half Round Cast Iron Gutter.

 

 

You can see in the picture to the (left) the damage the cement pointing has done to the soft Lancashire sand stone. Any moisture in the lime mortar under the hard cement pointing can only escape through the sand stone, this process causes the stone to weather alot quicker than if it was pointed using lime mortar. (Click to enlarge image)

 

 

This picture is not from the Whalley project but it shows really well the moisture trapped behind the cement pointing. The elevation is built from Lancashire black limestone so it will not decay as quickly as the sand stone, the internal to this elevation was very wet with lots of damp problems. (Click to enlarge image)

 

 

Spring 2008

Mellor Lodge Gate House Blackburn, Lancashire The gate house to Mellor Lodge has been in a very poor condition for many years, a planning applacation was approved to erect a extension behind the gate house. We were contracted in to re-construct the internal ramdom stone elevations, the roof from the gate house has been missing for many years. This has affected the internal structure badly, the internal stone walls had collapsed. Some of the original lime plaster is still intect, we have tried to leave as much of the original lime plaster work in tact as possible. The original lime mortar has not decayed to badly, a lot of the joints on the back face of the ashlar stone needed repointing. We installed new oak beams over the doors and windows, also timber joists for the ceiling were installed. We used a hydraulic lime mortar NHL-2 to rebuild the elevations, mixed at 3:1 with a course sand.

Hollins Farm Rimington, Clitheroe, Lancashire After alot of problems with damp and water ingress to the internal wall areas the client decided to repoint with a hydraulic lime mortar. The property is very exposed to the driving winds and rain, the elevation had been repointed afew years ago with a cement based mortar. The building also had a hard cement render coat up until a few years age, this was removed and the elevation repointed. The building is constructed from a local Lancashire black lime stone, the corner on the picture (above) is where most of the damp and water ingress is entering the wall. Scaffolding erected to access the elevations, small air chisels were used to remove the cement pointing. The chisels do not mark the stone they are lighter to use, and can be used safely in damp or wet conditions. A lime putty based lime mortar was used to fill the voids, this allow maximum breathable for the elevations. New hydraulic lime mortar pointing, the new lime mortar pointing is jointed flush to the stonework this allows rain water to easliy run of the elevation.