North – Autumn 2023
Spooky season has been and gone and H+R’s Northern Office has enjoyed some un-be-leaf-ably interesting jobs this Autumn.
September saw our team visit the Grade I listed Brodsworth Hall near Doncaster to complete a roof drainage survey. The estate had passed through multiple families and owners and had major refurbishments in the 16th and 17th centuries. The settlement there dates as far back as the Iron Age period. Last occupied by the Thellusion family until 1988, the estate was granted to English Heritage, who undertook works to make the property safe while preserving and conserving its original schemes and character. The property and gardens were opened to the public in 1995.
In October our team visited the seaside town of Morecambe to complete a timber condition survey on the south aisle of the Grade II listed Morecambe Parish Church, prior to re-roofing works. The original chapel of ease of St Mary’s, Lancaster was built in 1745 and was in use until the combining of three smaller villages into Morecambe, when It could no longer accommodate the increasing population and a larger church became necessary. The current church was designed by Edmund Sharpe with building commencing in June 1840 and the grounds being consecrated in June 1841. Since it was built, various successors of Edmund Sharpe’s architectural practice were involved in adding to the building’s original design, including the addition of the south aisle in 1866 and the chancel, organ, chambers, and vestries in 1897.
Our team took another trip north to Emmanuel Church in Preston, where we carried out a timber condition survey of the roof structure and a façade survey ahead of a proposed development to convert the Grade II listed building into a smaller worship space along with residential space. Originally built in approximately 1869 during the population boom in Preston, the church originally would have housed a congregation in the hundreds. The Gothic revival style church was in use until 2014, at which point the congregation moved into Plungington Community Centre next door following plans to refurbish the church’s roof and interiors.
