interior woodwork
We work on-site on all forms of interior woodwork, including churches, historic buildings, and scheduled monuments. We act as principal contractor working with architects and heritage organisations to deliver high specification work on time and to budget. Our team are highly trained conservators who manage all aspects of treatment and site management.
We also make new woodwork in period styles for projects including historic house restoration.
See below for case studies of recent projects.
St margaret pattens
Organ
The organ at St Margaret Pattens, a Wren church in Eastcheap London, was made in 1749 and holds a Grade 1 Historic Organs Certificate for the stunning casework. It had been given little maintenance since the 50s and was due for repair of the pipes and woodwork. We worked with the organ builders to coordinate treatment of the casework over six weeks.
We performed structural repairs to the loose, vulnerable oak panels, and removed 80 years’ worth of dirt and grime from the very fine carving. There were quite a lot of loose pieces of carving that needed to be secured, including a bow with carved wooden hairs for one of the violins that we found lost amongst the accumulated dirt! Another of our favourite details was a carved music manuscript that actually turned out to have a playable piece of music on it (shown below).
Ripon cathedral
Medieval choirstalls
When a carved angel from the medieval choirstalls at Ripon Cathedral became so loose that it fell off, it instigated a £120,000 “Fallen Angels” restoration project. In the end, we treated over 70 angels amongst the carvings there, as well as the important misericords. It was a 1500-hour project with a team of six specialist conservators on scaffolding, working with the cathedral diocesan authorities, fabric advisory committee, architects, and CDM advisor. The largescale project drew a lot of attention from the press: you can see Tristram speaking about it here as well as a related article in the Yorkshire Post here, and our site manager Rachel Lawson in the Telegraph below.
The choir stalls are internationally significant for their continuous usage since the 15th century. The misericords are said to have inspired Louis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. We cleaned the wood; reattached countless loose and detached elements like finials, spirals, and crockets; and applied a surface treatment to protect the woodwork and improve the appearance.
And, we put the angel back.
private client
Period-style paneling
For a medieval country house with later additions, we replaced the missing Jacobean oak panelling in the drawing room, and added historically sympathetic new paneling in other rooms of the house. We worked with the interior designer to realise the client’s vision.
