On Wednesday 12th March, our colleagues from Aura Conservation provided local residents with the opportunity to see their heritage experts at work on the redevelopment of St Marie’s Church.

The topic for this Workshop was Repointing, Descaling & Marble Cleaning and it was attended by 11 people.

Nearly all of the attendees felt they were more interested in the topic and local heritage generally after attending the workshop (with a few maintaining an existing 10 out of 10 appreciation for the topic).

During the workshop we were guided by Gareth Liddle from Aura Conservation and got to watch master craftsman Tom Roberts in action.

Here’s the feedback with received from attendees:

– Very impressed with the skills and techniques being used.
– It was very good. I’ve done pointing, but not like that!
– I thought it was really informative and nice to see the difference the work is making and that it’s being done sympathetically.
– I was very moved by seeing the transformation. I loved Tom’s craftsmanship and expertise.
– Fascinating to see the level of care taken over the pointing. Very interesting to hear and see the marble cleaning.
– I enjoyed it. Great to see it in it’s different stages.
– Inspiring to see it all coming back to life.
– It’s amazing how time consuming the work is.
– Very well organised. Fascinating. I learnt a lot about the skills involved.
– it was really informative. Everything was explained brilliantly.
– Very interesting and very informative.

Here are some photos I took on the day:

Tom in repointing action seen here “raking out”.

L to R: Bev, Gareth, Steph, Tommy & Peter watch Tom at work

Tom applies the freshly made pointing mix

L to R: Billy, Agnes, Sue, Roger and Peter watch Tom repointing

A freshly repointed wall and a job well done.

The guys see inside the church for the first time. from L to R: Steph, Tommy, Gareth, Peter and Tony.

The view inside the church. I’m sure we left an altar in here somewhere.

Tom showed us the descalling process

Tom’s work protects the stone from future damage from rain water

There’s more marble to clean than the team imagined.

Tommy and Bev look on as Tom applies a mild detergent to the marble

Tom steam cleans the marble on the altar

It’s another job well done. Thanks Tom!

Many thanks to Gareth and Tom for taking the time to share their expertise.

You can find out more about Aura Conservation by visiting their website: http://www.auraltd.co.uk

Matthew Roberts