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Szerelmey restore Grade One-listed columns at St John's College, Oxford
Szerelmey was appointed alongside Beard Construction and working with Wright and Wright Architects to carry out extensive repair, restoration and replacement work to the Grade I listed Laudian Library extension in the Canterbury Quadrangle. This follows on from the successful delivery of a new package of works creating a new library and study centre, artwork walls and interior and exterior paving – completed by Szerelmey in 2019. The Canterbury Quadrangle is one of the most famous, historic and beautiful of Oxford’s buildings.
Read more: Szerelmey restore Grade One-listed columns at St John's College, Oxford
Wells Cathedral awarded a £578k grant by National Lottery Heritage Fund to implement major project
Wells Cathedral in Somerset has received initial support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for its ‘Vicars’ Close: A Medieval Street Singing Through the Centuries’ project. Made possible by National Lottery players, the project aims to make a number of the historic properties on Vicars’ Close in Wells accessible to the public for the first time, to better share their rich history. The project will also conserve the unique architectural heritage of the Close, the oldest continuously inhabited medieval street in Europe.
Development funding of £577,562 has been awarded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help Wells Cathedral progress their plans to apply for a full National Lottery grant at a later date.
Athlone House scoops brace of roofing awards
When the Pitched Roofing Awards were announced on 26 November, one outstanding project won both the Best Use of a Heritage Roof and Best Use of Concrete Clay Tiles for a Domestic Project categories. That project was the reroofing of Athlone House in North London using tiles produced by traditional manufacturer Dreadnought – whose pedigree in clay tile production dates from 1805.
Standing on high ground just beyond the northern edge of North London’s Hampstead Heath, within the Highgate Conservation Area, over its 150-year history Athlone House has been used as a private dwelling, a secret RAF school during WWII and more recently an NHS home for people with dementia.
Weldon stone give a guide to natural stone
Looking for some useful tips on natural stone? There are obviously a wide variety depending on what its end use is.
Peter Dunn of Weldon Stone gives some examples with technical specifications and images of the products they have available. You can choose from everything from paving stone to stone for fine carving, from window sills to copings, from lime stone to headstones.
ISCVE appoints new president and vice president
At its recent Members’ Day and AGM, the Institute of Sound, Communications and Visual Engineers (ISCVE) announced the appointment of its new president and vice-president.
Neil Voce, MInstSCVE, Sales Director for Ambient System, was appointed as the new president, for a term of three years, taking over from Helen Goddard FInstSCVE, while Jim Smith FInstSCVE was appointed vice president.
20th Anniversary success for ISCVEx 2022
Wednesday, March 23rd 2022, the Institute of Sound, Communications and Visual Engineers winds up its 20th Anniversary ISCVEx event at Coombe Abbey Hotel and Country Park near Coventry.
Held annually by the Institute of Sound, Communications and Visual Engineers, ISCVEx is open to members and non-members and is a mixed programme including a manufacturers and distributors exhibition, networking and seminars events.
Kentec’s new K-Mesh wireless technology wins praise for Chester Cathedral project
K-Mesh, a next-generation wireless fire detection technology from Kentec Electronics, a leading manufacturer of life-critical control solutions, is winning deserved praise from the installer of a new system protecting the historic Chester Cathedral.
Brad Parker, founder of Charles Thomas Heritage Fire Protection, was tasked with specifying and upgrading the wireless fire detection system previously installed in the Cathedral. The thick walls and lead-lined roofs and the other challenges that come with a building that can trace its roots back to 1093, meant Brad had to think outside the box.
Read more: Kentec’s new K-Mesh wireless technology wins praise for Chester Cathedral project
Shedding some light on the new Part L Building Regulations
A major part of the UK’s commitment to meeting its targets for carbon reduction is being driven by a tightening of the Building Regulations surrounding energy efficiency standards for homes. Here, Stella Rooflight Director, Paul Trace, addresses the new rules for rooflights and thermal performance including why they are needed.
Read more: Shedding some light on the new Part L Building Regulations
Ecclesiastical Insurance Group becomes Benefact Group
The new name and brand identity marks an ambitious new chapter for the charitable owned Group and its family of specialist businesses.
Owned by a registered charity, Benefact Trust, Benefact Group gives all its available profits to good causes. The new name better reflects the Group’s diversity, breadth and purpose – it derives from Latin and means to do well by supporting a person or good cause.
Read more: Ecclesiastical Insurance Group becomes Benefact Group
Creating light beautifully with Clement Conservation Rooflights – the best for energy efficiency and more
Whether you are looking to renovate a period property, update your home or office, or transform a new space, creating the right amount of interior light is always a major consideration and a rooflight can often be crucial in enabling daylight to flood into a lower level room, an attic or even a peculiarly shaped corner.
Clement Conservation Rooflights have been awarded an A+ window energy rating by the British Fenestration Rating Council (BFRC), the premier UK authority for independently verified ratings of energy efficient windows and doors. However, this is not the only benefit you receive when you choose one of our rooflights.
Spending a legacy on a sound system – what to upgrade?
Recently Blaydon Communications were contacted by a local church who had kindly been left a legacy and needed some advice. The sound system in the church had not been touched for many years so it was decided that a beneficial use for the money would be to upgrade the sound system. Conflicting online advice and sheer options for hardware had proved overwhelming, so it was time to draft in some professional help. The company's managing director Paul Dougherty takes up the story.
Our initial visit to the church was mainly a fact-finding mission to determine what the expectations of the church was from the proposed system. Once we knew what was expected we could work back through the technicalities of achieving the desired outcome without having to ask any technical questions to the church. Using this approach requires no technical knowledge from the end users and reinforces the fact that all we are interested in is making sure the system does it needs to when it is finished.
Read more: Spending a legacy on a sound system – what to upgrade?
A fabulous new space created for this much loved theatre
The Progressive Players were founded in 1920. In 1939, founding members Ruth, Sylvia and Hope Dodds generously provided the money to purchase a vacant site facing Saltwell Park, together with adjoining No.3 Saltwell View, and build the Players’ own theatre.
The Little Theatre is believed to be the only playhouse built in Britain during World War II and to this day it remains Gatehead’s one theatre. It opened with a performance of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in October 1943 and since then the site has remained home to the Progressive Players who now produce ten plays a year.
Read more: A fabulous new space created for this much loved theatre
Restoration work at St Philip and St James Church, Whitton
When the fabric of the building at St Philip and St James Church, Whitton in Twickenham began to fail, Minerva Building Restoration Ltd were appointed to assess the general condition of this 1862 built church. The main brief was to accompany the client to determine the worst affected areas and ultimately produce detailed stone repair schedules and costs for consideration.
As with many churches, the issue of invalidating insurance policies with scaffolding in place meant that combination of scaffolding and cherry picker access was required to reach the works at high level.
Read more: Restoration work at St Philip and St James Church, Whitton
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