Elliott Ryder Conservation

12/11/2024

I usually attend the Remembrance Sunday commemoriations at one of the war memorials we work on, but this year there has been more of a geographical spread, them being in Cheshire, Essex, Devon and Buckinghamshire. Details of each to follow.....

12/11/2023

Port Sunlight War Memorial – Wirral - Merseyside

This summer I had the real pleasure of working alongside long-time friend and colleague from my last employment, at St Blaise Ltd - Ian Storey, of Conservation Building Services Ltd. Between us we conserved all the bronze sculptures and figurative panels of this Grade 1 listed War Memorial, one of the largest and finest in the UK, outside our capital cities.
Designed and executed by celebrated Welsh sculptor - Sir William Goscombe John R.A. the upper figures are twice life-size, with the lower high-relief panels depicting different branches of the military and auxiliary services, being just less than life-size.
The memorial proved controversial when first unveiled, depicting civillians, women and children in particular, being protected by military figures, at a time when invasion was still a real concern.
All bronzes were conserved, before subsequent stone-cleaning the remainder of the memorial by a different contractor. We cleaned the granite up-to and around the bronzes, so they would not be disrupted later. The bronzes were steam-cleaned, corrosion products removed by-hand, before piecemeal re-patination and re-waxing, with the different phases of works being part of a carefully planned maintenance schedule by the Port Sunlight Visitors Trust.
Works were undertaken during the heat wave of early summer, perfect for the tasks we were performing, not so much for us. Ambient temperatures were in the high 20’s with direct sun behind us and the gas torches up to 1,100 degress celcius, heating the bronzes in front, radiating heat back at us. I’ve never drunk so much water.
Numerous visitors to the memorial (mostly women !) confessed to swinging from the hanging sculptural elements when growing up, of course we reported each and every one of them to the Sculpture Police.

Conservation Building Services Ltd
Port Sunlight Village Trust
War Memorials Trust

03/11/2023

Paulinus Stone - Caerwent

This 3rd century stone excavated by archaeologists just after WW1, in the Roman settlement of Caerwent, commemorates Tiberius Claudius Paulinus, who was Governor of Britannia Inferior, the northerly of the two provinces Britain was divided into by the Romans and where the more troublesome (some say more fun) locals lived. Initially the plan was to ‘simply’ move the moulded plinth and incised stone above (which weigh just over 1.5 tonnes in total) and manoeuvre them as one, to the opposite end of the porch, to make them more visible to visitors at the base of a new stone ramp - recycling the existing stone paving. It became clear the plinth didn’t mirror the footprint of the overlying slab and extended backwards, well into the core of the porch. Moving the whole would have destabilised the porch in that area and required a void to be created in the opposite end to accommodate it. The decision was quickly taken in conjunction with the Architect to conserve them insitu, for the safety of the object and integrity of the porch, with the planned stone ramp incorporated around it. Fragmentary remains of applied decoration within the lettering was analysed by a paint specialist, prior to decades of accumulated dust, dirt and algaes being carefully removed from all exposed surfaces.

Volute Architects
Catherine Hassall
Monmouth Diocese

24/10/2023

Ditchley Park - Oxfordshire

The lesson here is, don’t stand or sit on your heavily veined, marble sink-surround when changing a bulb in the vanity mirror. Plus.....show me you’re disappointed - without telling me you’re disappointed. When you get the fragile, decorative table-top already packaged, back to the workshop and turn it over. The very pretty - but very fragile Italian conglomerate table top, has been repaired many times before, some more effective than others. Iron nails set in with ‘glue’ as opposed to threaded stainless-steel dowels set in with epoxy resin, with the fracture line tinctured to disappear.

The Ditchley Foundation
Paul Gough

20/10/2023

War Memorial – Preston Wynne

During the war, 80 years ago this Sunday 22nd October, a Short - Stirling bomber took off from RAF Stradishall in Suffolk on a cross country training flight. The plane was seen to be on fire over nearby lakes and dove vertically, crashing into Rosamaund Farm near to Holy Trinity Church, killing all 9 crew members. The restoration of this finely engraved memorial plaque was skilfully undertaken by colleagues The Skillington Workshop. There is a memorial service in the church this Saturday 21st commemorating the loss of the aircrew.

Skillington Workshop
Royal Air Force
Hereford Diocese

20/10/2023

Medieval Cross-head - Llangan

This listed object had been in pieces for many years and simply laid out on the porch bench, making sections vulnerable to theft, albeit by someone very strong. We cleaned all three sections to remove accumulated green alage from all surfaces, prior to reassembling and displaying the whole within the porch. We incorporated bespoke stainless-steel fixings to ensure it was secure and safe and installed it upon a Welsh Oak plinth, to raise it off the stone benching.

R M Furniture and Joinery
metals 4 U

02/02/2023

Very proud to attend my first meeting as a full member of Llandaff - Diocesan Advisory Committee this week. A diverse group of talented, experienced, passionate people - and me. I look forward to learning from them all and help to maintain the built heritage within the Llandaff Diocese area.

Diocese of Llandaff
Pevsner Architectural Guides

02/02/2023

27/12/2022

The fragile 15th century carvings depicting the Pieta, Cruxification and several saints, are protected for the winter - just before the very cold snap in early December. Protections consist of two different inert layers, the first layer is of man-made fleece secured with wide, soft bandages, followed by a bespoke, breathable Tyvek bag secured around the shaft with close fitting cable-ties. The fleece beneath is to keep the stone warmer and prevent the Tyvek cover rubbing against the stone.
These protections are funded by Cadw, such is the importance of the whole object, which we conserved in 2021.

Diocese of Llandaff
Cadw

07/12/2022

Looking at the monument to Welsh maths legend and all round polymath Robert Recorde, with a view to it being moved to a more prominent position within the building, as part of re-ordering within the beautifully preserved Church of St Mary in Tenby.

Robert Recorde who was born in 1512 in Tenby, has touched the life of nearly everyone in the world since the early 16th century in a small but significant way, having invented the ‘sign of equality’ = and the ‘pre-existing plus sign’ + he also coined the phrase zenzizenzizenzic (a word used to describe a number to the eighth power) and why no one ever played him at Scrabble.

He entered Oxford University at 15 to study mathematics and later studied as a medical doctor at Cambridge University, eventually becoming Royal Physician to King Edward 6th and Queen Mary.

He met an untimely death in Southwark debtors prison - most likely from gaol fever aged just 46, but his legacy in mathematics, geometry, medicine and astronomy (if not board games) lives on.

12/11/2022

Is that the Christmas tree ? asked an interested passerby – no, it’s the War Memorial it’s been there 101 years, this year !

We were very pleased to be asked to conserve this public memorial by Chesham Town Council - Buckinghamshire, which depicts a very fine representation of a British Tommy by sculptor & painter Arthur George Walker R.A.

It is recorded that Walker sketched his design for the Tommy from life, the solider having recently returned from Flanders, with whom the artist corresponded on his return to the trenches. According to Walker the man survived to see photographs of the finished statue.

Bronze dedication panels were waxed and burnished. The Portland stone of the memorial was lightly cleaned and shelter-coated to slow down the rate of deterioration, ensuring the memorial is there to be commemorated for decades to come.

P.S. It’s nearly always sunny when we work on War Memorials.

Chesham Town Council
Royal British legion
# Rose of Jericho

09/03/2022

The portrait medallion to Robert Stephenson (son of George Stephenson - inventor of The Rocket) who designed the first bridge that joined Anglesey to the mainland, amongst other achievements. His most notable structures were tubular bridges in Canada and Egypt. As either chief engineer or consultant to railway projects his work influenced the development of railways in Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Italy, and India. The sandstone carving, painted to look like marble and moulded softwood roundel had discreet paint samples removed for analysis. It was relatively easy to clean decades of accumulated dirt from the robust surfaces and repair the fractured timber, with the medallion now proudly displayed in the Thomas Telford Centre on Anglesey.

Thomas Telford Centre
Pilgrim Trust