Chewton Place is a Grade II listed riverside building set within large grounds. We were awarded the contract to carry out estate restorations; lime pointing, stone consolidation, stonemasonry and carving, repairs to riverside walls and flaunching to top wall sections.
Local Lias stone, heavily decayed on the surface, needed comprehensive repairs and pointing, using appropriate colour match mortar. Separate colour mix was devised for masonry repairs and joint pointing. Further repairs to estate walls also involved wall structural bracing, relaying and repairs of existing stone copings.
River wall repairs and re-capping using existing and new coping stones. Work also required extensive repairs to wall sections damaged by tree growth, newly introduced drainage outlets and blocked up redundant wall cavities and installation of stainless mooring points along river wall elevations. This required creating new mortar mix recipe to match colour of retained pointing. Works often involve carving on site custom shaped masonry sections.
Re-capping, repairs and lime pointing of Grade II listed bridge structure forming part of estate walls. Work involved careful removal of existing cement flaunching and pointing, with comprehensive restoration using traditional lime mortars. Special care and attention was needed during this work not to allow any rubble falling into the river below the bridge
The conversion of Chewton Place estate from commercial to residential use has been a very complex and time-consuming process. The entire estate has been greatly neglected and nearly every aspect of it had to undergo comprehensive restoration and often extensive repairs. The project required working with multitude of very niche contractors providing expert knowledge, experience and skill to provide practical solutions and carry out repair and conservation type work with aim to preserve historic fabric of the estate for years to come.
SK Conservation has been an essential part of the restoration project for over 5 years. Challenges of the process required professionalism of the team on site as well as efficiency of the administrative part of the business related to reporting, time keeping, health and safety, methodology of work and prompt & accurate invoicing. All of which have been consistently excellent on SK Conservation’s part throughout the project. SK Conservation will continue to be part of restoration and conservation process whenever possible. We trust their quality of work and have enjoyed working with them. We are always happy recommending SK Conservation for work where understanding of traditional, historic methods is essential.
Adrian Zareba – Project Manager