SSHConservation

30/07/2024

Situated close to the Great West Road, the iconic Leaning Lady Sculpture was created by Dr. Karel Vogel as part of London's post WWII public art programme. Listed as Grade II and considered 'at risk' in 2016, a campaign to restore the sculpture has since taken place.

Earlier this year SSH Conservation were contracted to undertake the repairs. The sculpture is made from cast concrete with armatures. The main challenge of the project was stopping water ingress to the numerous ferrous armatures embedded within the substrate. These would be too destructive to remove. The surface had many micro cracks, making preventing water ingress challenging.

As part of the repair programme, the SSHC team used the silicate based fine filler and paint system (Keim Granital) to give protection. Much work went into producing samples of a range of colours and paint systems on purposely fabricated sample panels that matched the historic surface so as to make sure the right choice was made.

Our client was the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, with Heritage of London Trust providing funding. Other funding was also provided by St Peter's Residents Association, Hammersmith and Fulham Historic Buildings Group, plus other individual donations.

It was a wonderful occasion when the finished repair work was recently unveiled by the Duke of Gloucester who is a patron of Heritage of London Trust.

14/05/2024

09/05/2024

Behind the scenes at A la Ronde - SSHC caught on camera! 🎥 Make sure to tune in to BBC 2 Friday night at 9pm (straight after Gardener’s World) for the new season of Hidden Treasures of the National Trust. Or catch up on iPlayer!

Our team will be featured in the first episode which focuses on the amazing work we undertook to conserve the Shell Gallery at A la Ronde. We were the main contractors for this unique project and worked alongside other specialists including who also appears in the episode.

🐚

27/03/2024

A Landmark on Cornwall’s coastline, Bude’s Compass Point Stormtower, also known as the Pepperpot, has been successfully moved to its new home away from the erroding cliff edge.
it was wonderful to see the tower presented to the local community and celebrate the completion of the project. The Pepperpot is an iconic park of Bude’s heritage which was at risk of being lost forever due to the effects of coastal erosion. Sitting proudly in its new location the Pepperpot will be enjoyed by generations to come.

24/01/2024

Check us out in Iconnect Magazine Winter Issue 5!
Our consultancy team have been busy surveying the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.

If you're an ICON member, grab a cup of tea and read the article on how we carried out the survey using traditional methods and modern 3D technology on these historic sculptures.

15/12/2023

This week Kim Hart from Lambeth Council - Activities and Community Officer (West Norwood Cemetery) arranged a visit for the teams from the Magnificent Seven cemeteries, to share the experience of our West Norwood Project and how the whole contract has been structured. Alison Plant - Senior Project Manager (NLHF) from Lambeth Council was also in attendance.
The big draw was the work to The Ralli Mausoleum also known as St Stephen’s Chapel and access to see the redecoration of the ceiling by Britain & Co. Our site manager and mason guided the tour of our works.




Norwood Cemetery
Services, Lambeth

30/11/2023

Exeter Cathedral Cloisters

The roof is going on! This drone footage was captured by photographer Mike Smallcombe as the timbers were lowered into position from a crane, while the carpenters from Emanuel Hendry were ready below to slot them into place. The operation went smoothly, as the oak beams were lowered into their final resting place.

24/11/2023

One of our masons was asked to partake at a Young Career Fair at a school to demonstrate the craft of stonemasonry.

The afternoon was spent chatting with the school children about masonry as a career option. They were given the chance to try their hand at chiselling using hand tools, and see how stone can be worked into decorative pieces.

We hope some young mind was opened to the possibility of stonemasonry or a similar heritage craft skill as a future career.

24/11/2023

Steps are finished! It's been a big effort from the team, with a lot of rainy days and water around our ankles.

Following the construction of the supporting brick arches to the steps of St Stephens Chapel the stone steps have been put back into position. Each step is supported on a newly built brick dwarf wall.

Inside the chapel, consolidation work to the plaster ceiling and paint samples have been carried out. The ceiling had been heavily varnished which obscured the original brighter paint finish. The decorative paint scheme will be applied by hand using stencils and match the original design.



Norwood Cemetery
Services, Lambeth

21/11/2023

Our progress continues at Exeter Cathedral, the stone doorways and tracery windows in the new cloister wall are complete.

As tradition, our masons put their masons marks in to the back of the buttress cap stones after they were fixed.

The wall is up to padstone height, and is ready for the installation of the oak roof beams which weigh half a tonne each.

23/10/2023

Our project at Hailes Abbey is complete.

Our final works required soft capping to the ruins in turf sourced locally from a neighbouring field. Hazel pegs were used to secure the capping in place, and individual sedum plugs were randomly inserted within the turf.

This soft capping is a natural way to protect the tops of exposed historic ruined walls and offers a natural feature to the Grade I Listed and Scheduled Monument.


Hailes Abbey

18/08/2023

We had glorious weather yesterday working on Hailes Abbey, not so sunny today with the rain showers.

This Grade I Listed and Scheduled Monument was part of a former Cistercian Abbey built in 1277, but sadly saw its destruction under the Dissolution Act of 1536. What once was a site of pilgrimage now stands in ruins where we are tasked with conserving this structure using various techniques; harling, micro pinning, pointing and soft capping.


Hailes Abbey

10/08/2023

We continue at West Norwood Cemetery in South London, this time on St. Stephens Chapel. Over recent years St. Stephens Chapel has been in poor condition suffering from subsidence, water damage and collapse of masonry.

St. Stephens Chapel, Grade II Listed, circa 1872, stands with an impressive portico with Doric columns. Due to the portico subsiding, underpinning works have taken place, and with reinstatement of brick arches as original design.



West Norwood Cemetery
Bereavement Services, Lambeth

25/07/2023

Our project on the new cloister gallery at Exeter Cathedral is progressing well. The archeology for the works are now complete, with foundations being laid with 4m high columns each weighing 1.9 tonnes.

The majority of the stonework for the Cloister wall has been worked, with fixing underway. Once the building work reaches column height we'll be ready for roof installation.

The roof has been fabricated using large oak beams in a nearby workshop at the edge of Dartmoor. The large oak roof beams are very heavy and will be lifted in by crane sequentially.

18/07/2023

We've been working away at Saint Stephen's in Bristol for several months now, with the project drawing to a close.

This medieval church in the heart of the city centre has undergone refurbishment, seeing new lime plastering, applications of lime wash, repairs to the windows, new electrical and lighting works, gold leafing to the baptistry and cleaning of the Victorian encaustic tile floor.

This historic Grade I Listed church will be open again soon for worship and visitors.

04/07/2023

A landmark on Cornwall’s’ coastline, Bude’s Compass Point storm tower is being moved stone by stone before the cliff erodes into the sea. This Grade II Listed building was built in 1835 and this is the second time the storm tower has been moved.

We’re not only tasked with the careful dismantle of the tower, marking every stone for its position and orientation but we are navigating this area as it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. With this we’ve been managing our plant movement over the turf so as not to cause heavy impact and minimalize damage.

Our team on this project are enjoying be part of this historical landmarks next phase, and those of us watching are going to be keenly watching this buildings relocation further in land on safer ground.

29/06/2023

SSH Conservation were recently invited to an awards ceremony presented by The Building Safety Group, where we were thrilled to have won an award for Highly Commended.

This award was presented to us in acknowledgement for one of our stone projects. The comments we received were, 'exemplary management of health and safety demonstrated throughout this stone masonry project'. We were noted for being fully compliant with H&S regulations, achieved by excellent outstanding company leadership as well as excellent site management.

At SSH Conservation we pride ourselves not only on our conservation work but how we carry out our work safely and this achievement recognises that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2E_qZbUE6k&list=PLESO_J4Ec9TcYJ1qS3lyHQ1SxQ19icy-z&index=26

22/06/2023

we’re at the beautiful Nunney Castle in Somerset, this beautiful and popular medieval site dates from the 1370s and was built by Sir John de La Mare. It was later modernised in the 16th century and subsequently besieged in 1645 during the English Civil war.

Checking and repairing the high level masonry in the towers is essential to keep these sites safe for the public, and rope access is the perfect way to access areas that usually go untouched.
Our team spend their time assessing the safety of all the high level masonry, removing and controlling vegetation and repairing or removing anything that poses a potential danger to the public, in turn this work slows down deterioration of beautiful sites like this and hopefully means people can enjoy them for years to come.

19/06/2023

Continuing works at St Nicolas, Kings Norton.

After a accident in November 2020, one of the tower merlons fell to the ground and was destroyed.

With the help of - who have hand crafted this incredible replica merlon from red sandstone, the tower merlon will be reinstated in the coming few weeks.

With stonemasonry going the way it has recently, with training facilities shutting down in Weymouth and now Edinburgh, leaving us just seven colleges in the UK, I hope you’ll agree and appreciate the need for such talented craftspeople in our built heritage industry.

If you’re interested in an apprenticeship in stonemasonry, please do get in touch.

15/06/2023

Today we celebrate Women in Trade Day.

At SSH Conservation we’re proud to operate an inclusive diverse company, and part of that diversity are the trade women we have as part of our company - 40% which doesn't include our freelancers. These women work to conserve and repair our Listed historic buildings and monuments, offer a wealth of value to our teams with their masonry, and conservation trade skill. We’re also proud that a portion of our construction sites are run by these trade women working in challenging on projects and environments. Today we celebrate Women in Trade but let us not forget those women behind the scenes in the office, or at the end of the phone solving problems who also play a major part within SSH Conservation. Let’s also give a nod to the trade men and managers, because at SSH Conservation we work better together.

https://www.womenintradeday.co.uk

09/06/2023

Continuing with highlighting National Cemetery Week, our work this year at Bunhill Fields Burial Ground has seen the conservation and repair of 460 memorials. This area within the City of London is a hidden gem and offers a step back in London’s rich history.

These Yorkstone headstones have been grouted and fine dentistry repairs carried out.

08/06/2023

This week we celebrate National Cemetery Week, 3rd June – 11th June 2023.

We’ve worked on some wonderful cemeteries over the years and recently West Norwood Cemetery in South London. This cemetery has provided our conservators and masons with challenging and interesting repair work to some of the monuments within the cemetery.

One of those monuments, The Moffatt tomb circa 1847, was hit by lightning in 1989 which exploded the stone top canopy and its columns leaving behind twisted iron armatures. We lifted and relayed the curb set on new brick foundations, dismantled, and rebuilt the coffin, carved a new corner stone, and treated and painted the railings.

To see this monument and other tombs we are working on you can explore this 40-acre rural cemetery as the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery have organised a series of walks which can be found using the link below:

https://westnorwoodcemetery.org/friends-of-west-norwood-cemetery-cemeteries-week


Bereavement Services, Lambeth

07/06/2023

In 2021 SSHC carried out a Condition Report on the fabulous sgraffito decoration at St Peters, Hornblotton. In addition to ongoing improvements to the building envelope our report recommended monitoring of the environment and cracking systems through the decoration followed by trials.

Due to the tireless efforts of Nigel Blower of the PCC, The architect Mark Taylor and the support of the Heritage Agencies and specialists the monitoring is now underway.

02/06/2023

Exeter Cathedral is seeing one of its most significant building projects since 1887 and will connect the Cathedral with the Chapter House and Pearson Building. Our masonry team are fortunate to be part of this exciting piece of history and building this new cloister gallery.

Excavations have exposed medieval and Roman foundations, in which the Roman foundations are being used to build the new cloister. These excavations have also unearthed some suburb archaeological finds.

This is an opportunity to combine a mixture of traditional and modern build, using oak beam, underfloor heating, and improving the drainage.

More updates will follow with this project.

Further information:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mann-williams-consulting-civil-and-structural-engineers_the2020sdevelopmentappeal-activity-7051542950308139009-L13M?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop



Lottery Heritage Fund

22/05/2023

Our team have been continuing work on the unique project at A la Ronde. Work has been progressing well in the Shell Gallery. One of the first steps has been to consolidate and stabilise the existing decoration with dispersed lime grout - unfortunately the process is a little more time consuming than it appears on film and requires a lot of patience.

We have now moved onto reattaching shells and other decoration that have fallen from the walls over the years. Most of the shells do not have a specified location so it is rather like a giant jigsaw trying to work out where they all go!

18/05/2023

Almost two years on, and we’re back, checking the works that we carried out on the Wellington Monument.

This three sided obelisk is 53 meters tall (175ft) and, is the tallest three sided obelisk in the world!

With the , we replaced over 2000 individual stones and completely rebuilt the pyramidion in full with new stone. So, we’re giving it all a thorough check over to ensure that all the new work is holding up as it should be.

15/05/2023

Less exciting post, but just as important work …sadly, this graveyard wall at St Gregory’s Church in Weare, decided enough was enough, and collapsed.

But, luckily, Somerset Council commissioned us to rebuild it!

Interestingly, Frankie Howerd was buried here and his head stone is seen just meters from the collapse.

10/05/2023

Two of our consultancy team went out last week to survey these two 19th Century chest tombs in a parish just outside Wi******er, Hampshire.

These two tombs are being surveyed for a condition and recommendation report. The team will highlight areas that require treatment for on going care.

The photos illustrate the tombs natural decay within its environment. One of the main causes of the tombs structure is the ever gradual movement, likely caused by voids in the ground from graves, and years of ground disturbance through burials and natural movement. The tombs also suffer from invasive plant growth of ivy, hogweed, bindweed and ground elder to name a few.

With some conservation care and masonry manoeuvring, the history of these tombs can live on.

04/05/2023

Our London team are just finishing up after a long project at Bunhill Fields Burial Ground located in the City of London

Bunhill (bonehill) Fields is a burial ground north of the City of London for non-conformists. It became a burial ground from 1665 until 1854 and now holds around 2000 monuments. The site is Grade I Listed and sits in 4 acres.

We were tasked with cleaning and conserving just over 460 headstones. Some required a light steam clean using the Thermatech system, others required a mechanical approach with a light hammer and chisel to remove polluted crusts on the limestone surface, while others required re-footing and stabilising.

This area remains a popular part in the City of London for lunch time breaks and an area offering a green open space. It's been a pleasure to work with the City and its gardeners on this project.

13/04/2023

Our rope access team have been removing vegetation from this amazing ruin.

Anybody know where we are?!