The Friends of St Laurence

Church repairs Summer 2024

Published: June, 2024

During May and June, we have taken advantage of the good weather and completed all the work scheduled for our Summer 2024 programme of repairs.

The photos below show the stages of progress on the four main activities that have been undertaken:

The tower masonry repair trial to establish the best course of action to rectify the badly weathered stonework of the tower has been completed. The sequence of photos below show the stages of the work which has successfully replaced four individual stone blocks and protected others by brushing off loose material and applying a lime-based shelter coat. The trial and shelter coating achieve a remarkably good match – take a walk round to the north wall of the tower and see if you can spot how many stones have been replaced and which have had the shelter coat applied! This sample trial area will be a useful example to show statutory authorities and potential funders, as well as a practical model to assist both the scheduling and pricing of the tower masonry repairs as a whole.
A large area of the south transept has been cleaned off and re-pointed using carefully colour-matched lime mortar. This work included removing previously used Portland cement-based mortar which should never have been used on the soft, clunch stone that the church is mostly built from.
Roughly 50 metres of rainwater gullies around the base of the church have been cleaned out and repointed, again, using lime mortar.
Rebuilding of the Thomas Blackall Tomb which has been a dangerously collapsing eyesore over many years has been completed! As best summarised by our architect, Ian Angus: “The tomb reconstruction is a model of carefully thought through and well-judged structural reinforcement, heavy duty reconnection and finely made piecing-in and mortar repair – and it looks superb!” For the future, wedding photographers and those overlooking the churchyard will no longer have to endure the eyesore of the orange netting that has festooned the tomb for 10 years or more!

Tower north elevation showing trial masonry repairs