St Nicholas Parish Church Chiswick - Eastern boundary wall memorial stone

Transcription

1 , Fishers Court, Besson Street, London SE14 5AS Tel: St Nicholas Parish Church Chiswick - Eastern boundary wall memorial stone Conservation Treatment Report Object: A rectangular memorial stone with incised inscription dating from 1623 set within an ashlar wall Dimensions: Panel: 0.81m x 0.55m Wall: 2.10m x 1.14m Condition: the wall, coping and inscription panel were all heavily soiled by pollution and organic deposits (photo 1) the central area of lettering was severely affected by historic water runoff with some letters barely legible and others completely lost through surface erosion (photo 2) some areas of the wall had been affected by copper staining caused by water runoff from the copper roof areas of ferrous staining (photo 3) had been caused by an old iron fixture (now removed); evidence of old fixing holes remain on the wall and inscription panel (photo 8)

2 Conservation Treatment: Site set up: barriers were employed to protect the working area whilst maintaining full vehicular access at all times water was taken from a tap close to the Vestry door power was supplied by a portable generator Cleaning: the inscription panel, coping, wall and granite bollards were cleaned using a ThermaTech steam cleaner (145 C at bar) (photo 4) further cleaning to reduce and remove sulphation soiling to the inscription and wall was carried out by the application of 5 no. ammonium carbonate poultices (photo 5) after removal of each poultice, the surface was carefully scrubbed using a stiff non-ferrous brush followed by rinsing with the ThermaTech the poultices also reduced the copper and iron staining (photos 6 & 7) Re-carving: individual letters were carefully recut as required to improve the overall legibility of the inscription (photo 9) each letter was given a wash application of acrylic paint to improve legibility and to soften the effect of the newly carved letters (photo 10) due to the severe erosion of areas of the surface, there was no clear evidence of the original incised form of the ampersands no attempt was made to recut these and they were simply painted onto the surface with an acrylic paint (photo 11) the acrylic paint was a mix of Payne s Gray & Titanium White Repointing: open joints in the wall and around the panel were raked out and re-pointed with a lime mortar (photo 12) the following mortar mix was used: Natural Hydraulic Lime (NHL 3.5) 1 washed sharp sand 2 Portland stone dust ½ brick dust (for colour) <5 %

3 Photographic record: Photo 1: before conservation Photo 2: surface of panel

4 Photo 3: iron staining Photo 4: cleaning using ThermaTech system

5 Photo 5: poultice application Photo 6: panel after cleaning & before re-carving of letters

6 Photo 7: panel after cleaning showing extent of surface erosion Photo 8: old fixing holes

7 Photo 9: re-cutting of incised letters Photo 10: inscription after re-cutting & application of acrylic wash

8 Photo 11: painted ampersand Photo 12: repointing joints

9 Photo 13: general view Photo 14: before Photo 15: after The conservation work was undertaken June/July 2016 by Angus Lawrence and Sam Aldis of Taylor Pearce Limited. The letters were recut by Philip Surey. Angus Lawrence ACR