St. Peter Parmentergate, Norwich

Redundant since 1981 and situated on King Street, St. Peter Parmentergate is now in the care of The Norwich Historic Churches Trust. Within the chancel lies a rare early C.17th plaster monument to Richard Berney and his wife Elizabeth (Hobart).

Dr Carrington has been involved with this monument in various ways for many years and in 2006 produced a detailed survey report on this, as well as numerous other Norwich church monuments for the NHCT. Skillingtons subsequently won the competitive tender to carry out the conservation work required, which was undertaken during 2008.

The monument is almost entirely constructed of pre-formed coloured plaster panels and mouldings, some of which were seriously fractured. Analysis of small fragments revealed mixes often associated with scagliola.

Technically quite challenging, the canopy and the tomb chest on which the recumbent figures were resting were both in danger of collapsing. A special scaffold was adapted to support the canopy whilst our trim member of staff squeezed inside the tomb chest to assemble a specially designed stainless steel frame to support the weight of the figures and canopy.

Contract value range: £25-£50K
Client: The Norwich Historic Churches Trust
Architect: Michael Wingate

To view the gallery, simply click on an image. Once open you can also run a slide show of all gallery images for the Conservation Projects section.

Audley End House

Audley End House is a magnificent Jacobean ‘prodigy’ house, and is arguably the jewel in the crown of English Heritage’s East of England portfolio.

Skillingtons seem to be involved here in some capacity every year, having carried out major projects to the Tea Bridge, the Lion Gateway and the service range as well as to the main house.

In 2005 we won the competitive tender to carry out a major programme of work to the South Wing. The largest part of this was very sensitive mortar repairs to clunch ashlar and decorative work to a loggia. Clunch is a very soft limestone which is easily carved with fine detail, but it is this very quality that leaves it vulnerable to decay in the elements.

The approach here was to preserve as much original fabric as possible by means of lime mortar grouting, fillets along loose edges, and capping over cavernous decay. The mortars had to be carefully made to be virtually indistinguishable from the stone, and were sometimes further covered by equally subtle protective lime shelter coats.

Contract value range: £75-£100K
Client: English Heritage
Architect: RH Partnership Architects

To view the gallery, simply click on an image. Once open you can also run a slide show of all gallery images for the Conservation Projects section.

Holkham Hall

The Palladian mansion Holkham Hall was designed by William Kent and built between  1734 and 1764 by Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester.  Thomas was a great lover of the arts, and it is because of this that Holkham was built in order to house his extensive collection of art and sculpture gathered during his six year Grand Tour of Europe at the beginning of the century.

We were commissioned by the seventh Earl of Leicester to carry out an extensive survey of the collection during 2004, which included impulse radar to help identify previous restoration. We later carried out a complete conservation and restoration programme of works during 2005 and 2006 to the sculpture in the Sculpture Gallery.  

Contract value range: £25-£50K
Client: The Earl of Leicester

To view the gallery, simply click on an image. Once open you can also run a slide show of all gallery images for the Conservation Projects section.

Kirby Hall

One of England’s finest Elizabethan houses by Sir Humphrey Stafford, and later passing into the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth.

Much of this building is now sadly roofless, but the walls have stood up remarkably well and retain much of its styling with embellishments in parts by Nicholas Stone.

Now in the care of English Heritage, the gardens are being slowly restored to their ‘cutwork’ design. The restoration of the gardens would be incomplete without ornamentation which required the replication of four life-size classical figures from the collection of statuary at Wrest Park.

We also conserved the oversized truncated torso of the Rape of the Sabine which had previously laid almost forgotton and abandoned within the grounds of the Hall. Before mounting the figure on its new pedestal we liased with a structural engineer in order to make the figure safe for this unmanned site.

Contract value range: Various contracts
Client: English Heritage

To view the gallery, simply click on an image. Once open you can also run a slide show of all gallery images for the Conservation Projects section.

Laxfield

The impressive medieval tower at All Saints church, Laxfield, Suffolk is some 110 feet high and built with a combination of Caen stone, Kentish ragstone and flint. For several years pieces of masonry falling from the tower had meant that it had been fenced off, and in 2009 Skillingtons won by competitive tender the main contract for the repair of the west and south elevations.

Stone replacement was kept to a minimum, with much of the work being using lime methods to repair, consolidate and preserve the original fabric. Where the fine flushwork flint panels had lost some of their insets new knapped flints were set in place.

The project was completed on time, to budget, and was hailed as a great success by all involved.

Contract Value range: £125,000 - £150,000
Client: Laxfield PCC
Architect: Ruth Blackman (Birdsall Swash & Blackman)
Major grant aid by English Heritage.

To view the gallery, simply click on an image. Once open you can also run a slide show of all gallery images for the Conservation Projects section.