Undertaking work on churches and cathedrals is a pleasure for us. The quality of the historical work in these buildings of worship is often extremely high and the standard of their repair and restoration is expected to match.

 

Some recent projects have included have included St Clement Danes, The Strand, Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge and St Philip and St James at Twickenham. We thought the following may help to illustrate our capabilities.

Case Study – St Clement Danes, The Strand, London

 

We have been asked to repair various wooden structures inside the church on a number of occasions, these include the pews and staircase the six cherubs shown below and the four carved columns either side of the alter as also seen in the photo. This case study will illustrate our work to the columns.

 

 

The carved capitols on the top of the columns were in a poor state, the glue had failed and large sections of them were at risk of falling off. Along with the columns all four were removed from their place in the church and transported to our workshop where we have the correct facilities for their repair.

 

 

Each capitol was dismantled, assessed for damage then repaired and re assembled.

 

All Ready to be put back together. The process was the same for the remaining three capitols.

 

The columns:

All four of the columns were transported back to our workshop where they were dismantled.

 

Where needed the joints were strengthened.

 

New timber was carefully fitted to the old and precisely shaped to fit. You only get one chance at this so it’s important to take your time. The columns were a lot larger than they appear in this photo!

 

It is always a pleasure to use traditional tools, the wooden moulding plane above is nearly 100 years old.

 

Once the repairs were completed we refitted the items back in place. The whole process was of course arranged around the day to day activities of the church to minimise any disruption.

 

It is a pleasure and privilege to work on things of this nature I hope the above helps show what we are capable of, if you have the need for specialist repair work of this nature please feel free to contact us here.