Eura

Bannockburn Heritage Centre: bronze plaques.

Eura — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:52:34 +0000

A variety of bronze plaques explain the battle of Bannockburn, one shows the place of the ‘Borestone’, where Robert the Bruce planted his standard during the battle. During the extensive renovation and conservation of the whole Bannockburn Heritage Centre we were asked to clean, re-patinate and wax the bronze plaques. Eura’s expertise in metal conservation was needed to standardise the treatment and final look of the pieces to ensure they fit with the dominant equestrian statue, also conserved by Eura and the site of the ‘Borestone’. The plaques have apparently had various treatments over the years as witnessed in historical records and photos. We were tasked with bringing them back to darker backgrounds with the letters highlighted. This has been completed partly on site and partly in our Telford based workshops where we have conserved, repaired where needed and made legible the indistinct lettering. We will be returning the bronzes to site shortly to coincide with the opening of the new centre. The shield shaped plaque on the flagpole, donated by the ‘Oddfellows’ has a painted inscription. Again over the years this has become illegible but with delicate cleaning to preserve the plaque surface and newly applied paint this will once again add to the newly re-furbished and conserved area.

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Further Award – Linlathen Bridge East, Dundee.

Eura — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:27:38 +0000

This award, sponsored by, CSS, Network Rail, Institute of Civil Engineers, British Waterways, New Civil Engineer and English Heritage was receieved at a presentation ceremony in London on March 7th 2013. The judges commented further- ‘Following a brave decision [by Dundee City Council] to purchase and restore the bridge, the approach to conservation was exemplary, as was the quality of the works themselves.’

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Bannockburn Heritage Centre: Equestrian statue – Robert the Bruce

Eura — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 10:52:38 +0000

Robert the Bruce, famous for beating the English army of Edward ll despite having far fewer troops, is commemorated at the 1314 battleground in Bannockburn. A statue, sculpted by Pilkington Jackson and cast in Cheltenham by HH Martyn was installed in 1964. Originally this fine statue was a dark brown but over the years had become corroded to a light green. Eura were asked to complete some minor repairs, clean [retaining as much original patina as possible] re-patinate where required using traditional methods and then wax. Initially the granite plinth was carefully covered to protect and prevent the ingress of water during the initial super heated steam clean. Having removed environmental and powdery corrosion residues the statue was re-assessed and cleaned by gentle wet abrasion. Following burnishing with bronze brushes the statue was selectively chemically re-patinated, treated with corrosion inhibitor and waxed. A protective covering of the statuenow means that stone masons are now able to repair and re-point the dark granite plinth ready for the 700th anniversary of the battle and the opening of a newly constructed heritage centre.

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Bannockburn Heritage Centre: Flagpole.

Eura — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:37:13 +0000

In 1870, funded by the Dumbarton Lodge of Oddfellows, a flagpole was erected to mark the historic spot where, in 1314, Robert the Bruce planted his standard on the Borestone during the battle of Bannockburn. The flagpole provided a marker for visitors to find their way to the site and had originally been embellished with ornate thistles, a crown, a bronze memorial plaque and slightly incongruously, a star. The top of the flagpole was surmounted by an interpretation of Robert the Bruce’s axe – of vital importance in the early stages of the battle. The flagstaff, made of riveted sections of wrought iron, may well have been completed on site but over the years had suffered badly from corrosion, removal of thistles and crown and the axe becoming more like a scrapyard item by the day. Working with a flagpole specialist Eura Conservation carefully removed the paint from the pole by ultra-high-pressure water. Not only does this remove corrosion down to bare metal ready for immediate repair and re-painting but is an environmentally sound method of cleaning, leaving paint residues in a geotex membrane whilst the water drains away. The flagpole was repaired invisibly prior to painting. Measurements were taken from the scars of the thistles, the base of the pole and information gleaned from old photos and postcards in order to model the curves of the base of the pole and fabricate a new thistle. There were no photos or information of sufficient clarity to accurately model a new crown above the shield plaque. Historical and artistic information was used to design a new crown. Both thistle and crown are yet to be cast as I write this and the photos represent work in progress. However our skilled metal workers have carefully measured the old axe head and with this information,have designed and made brand new in stainless steel.

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South African War Memorial.

Eura — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:22:49 +0000

The South African War Memorial (1906), sculpted by local artist Albert Toft (1862 – 1949), had suffered from the effects of acid rain, other environmental deposits, vandalism and some historic settlement of the granite base. Four plaques, three with names of the fallen and one high relief bas plaque representing grief and sympathy were equally corroded and unreadable. Peace, the topmost sculpture, with two soldiers representing Courage and Endurance with a gun carriage had been vandalised. Normally held by Peace,the olive branch was missing as were the two rifles of the soldiers. Originally, the four corners of the base had bronze elements too, these were either wreaths surrounding shields or perhaps eagles; verbal and photographic evidence was inconclusive. The vulnerability of these lower plinth elements lead the client to request that only the rifles and olive branch were re-made.

Cleaning trials removing the areas of sulphides and powdery green corrosion products led the client and Eura to the conclusion that light air abrasive cleaning of statue plus all four plaques followed by chemical re-patination to the original mid- brown colour plus a protective coating of specially made micro-crystalline wax was the best way to conserve this historic memorial. After the thorough cleaning there were numerous areas where faults in the bronze casting were apparent. Some were the result of staining from iron chaplets in the original casting process, some were poorly made patches in the bronze, again probably dating from the original casting. Careful removal of staining of highly corroded areas and where needed filling with bronze loaded resin resulted in a surface suitable for patination and waxing.

Craftsmen in our extensive Telford Eura workshops took a mould from the one remaining rifle in order to reproduce the pattern ready for lost wax bronze casting. The olive branch was modeled by hand and again cast in bronze to reproduce the original. The new elements were secured with stainless steel fixings to reduce the risk of theft.

The pink granite plinth was cleaned and repaired by a specialist company; the mastic filler raked out and appropriately re-pointed with lime mortar, along with some small replacement pieces of granite being inset.

The results are there for all to see and once again the Memorial can be viewed by local people and the many visitors to Cannon Hill Park.

Tags: bronze, war memorial

Eura Gains a Commendation

Eura — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 09:32:30 +0000

Eura Conservation has been awarded a commendation by The Saltire Society in association with The Institute of Civil Engineers for our work on Linlathen East Bridge. The project demonstrated an exceptionally high level of conservation engineering expertise to meet the client’s requirements, thereby ensuring that one of Scotland’s most significant historic bridges was adapted for modern use and restored to service.

Tags: Award Bridge

Ballyfin Conservatory

Eura — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 08:20:43 +0000

Shrubbery growing through the roof were the least of the problems of this fine conservatory attached to Ballyfin House. Having fallen into disrepair over the years Ballyfin has been in painstakingly restored over many and now stands as a gorgeous 5 star hotel in central Ireland. Eura Conservation carefully dismantled the conservatory, individually tagging each piece, prior to transportation to our specialist workshops in Shropshire. All pieces were blast cleaned back to bare metal, coated with a protective modern anti-corrosion coating, then repaired or recast as needed before an up to date multi-coat paint system was applied.

Tags: Cast Iron, historic glasshouse

Radcliffe Camera

Eura — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 09:39:03 +0000

Graffiti is not just a recent phenomena. Students at Oxford University, in past centuries, climbed to the topmost windows of the Radcliffe Camera to scratch their names, initials and date in the delicate glass. Eura Conservation had the task of gently and carefully removing this very thin (some only 1mm thick) and fragile glass, then cleaning and replacing it in new oak frames. Working alongside the University’s estates department and Beard Construction a team from Eura, experienced in working with historic glass and museum artifacts, spent hour after hour gently removing ancient, rock hard putty a scrape at a time in order that the internal stresses within the glass didn’t cause breakage. The individual panes were numbered and catalogued, individually packed and transported to our workshops to be gently cleaned and stored prior to equally careful replacement in the new frames.

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Constructing Excellence in the North East

Eura — Wed, 30 May 2012 11:25:21 +0000

In May 2012 Eura Conservation won the Heritage award in the Constructing Excellence in the North East competition for its work on the Tynemouth Station Canopy restoration project.

In the words of the Constructing Excellence team “This award recognises the achievement of high standards in the repair, re-use and revitalisation of the region’s historic buildings, sites and places.”

Tags: Architecture, Award, Transport

Tynemouth Station Canopy Restoration

Eura — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:55:37 +0000

Eura Conservation were delighted to be able to restore the historic canopy to Tynemouth Railway station. The canopy was in a fragile state when Eura were invited to restore the beautiful Victorian ironwork to its former glory. The work involved dimantling the canopy, removing the corrossion and where necessary repairing lost wrought ironwork, before re installation and reglazing the canopy. Some of the replaced wrought ironwork was undertaken by students training as heritage blacksmiths under the National Lottery funded bursary scheme organised by the National Historic Ironwork Group.

During the conservation work Eura Conservation included visiting local schools, colleges, and community groups, to provide seminars/presentations on the history of the station, and of the types of skills and technology used to build it. We also provided guided ‘hard hat tours’ around selected parts of the site to groups.

Eura was pleased to be part of the team that won the Excellence in Construction in the North East award in May 2012 for their part in this project.

Tags: Architecture, Transport