Ten years of making at Clandon Park

“The stone at Clandon is very different. The fire has changed its characteristics. The Bath stone is incredibly brittle, and the face of the stone is peeling away in places. It sounds hollow when we tap along the stone.

“The first step in conserving the swag was to work out how to get it off the building. Each section was fixed straight onto the building with 300mm long iron cramps into the brickwork. The fire damaged the window arch underneath the swag, so it had dropped and cracked. I removed a lot of cement from historic repairs and removed the bricks around the cramp so I could take the swag off, document and photograph it.

“On the bench, I put all the pieces back together to see what was missing and what could be saved. I pinned all the pieces back together with stainless steel and applied mortar to the repairs. Then cleaned the stone in a way that leaves all the wear. We didn't want it to make it look new, we wanted to make it look like it hadn’t come off the wall. I carved a new piece of stone with the same detail as the missing area, then toned it down with natural pigment to make sure it flowed with the adjoining section.

“Once it was restored and put back together, I created a template of the swag and set out square grid lines. I used that template to mark all the areas with deep pins. With the template on the wall, I know the locations of all the pins in swag before I even lift it up and can drill the holes for the cramps. I’ve got the exact location where the stone goes. There's nowhere to put a level on a swag.”

Cary Wadey, a conservation carpenter and heritage stonemason working on the Essential Works phase of the Clandon Project. Alongside managing the bricklayers and stonemasons on site, Cary has been conserving and restoring masonry, including the decorative stone swags above the windows.

Meet Rosie, conserving the Marble Hall's plaster columns

“It is incredible the columns are still standing. They’re very fragile. They’re survivors.

“What’s really interesting is that they’re all hollow. They were intended to look like they were solid marble, but in fact they’re hollow plaster. They’re made from a wooden lath structure with plaster built up on top of that. You can see there is charring of the timber from fire damage at the top, and the delicate elements on the capitals have been damaged by debris falling. But what we're discovering by looking down into the column is that the wooden structure is relatively unharmed inside some of them.

“We need to build an exoskeleton around them, a support structure from the outside to make sure that while we’re working to conserve them any pressure from the inside isn't going to burst through. Then our plaster conservators will start at the top and carefully clean down inside with a tool they’ve made – like a claw grabber – and a vacuum cleaner to remove debris. Once the inside is clean, a specialist scanning company will drop a rotating scanner into the column to get a better picture of its internal integrity. Once we have that, the engineers and the plaster conservators will design a stabilising methodology and structure.

“Everything takes lots of thinking and lots of collaborative conversations to work out what the answer is and that's why working in a multidisciplinary way is so important. We need to have the expertise from all the different consultants thinking about the best approach. They’re really knotty problems. It’s fantastic working with such a specialist team on a problem and when you reach a solution together, it's really, really satisfying.

“I find Clandon endlessly interesting. From archaeology to dendrochronology, understanding how the fire impacted the fabric and structure, and the geology of the ground beneath us, there’s such a variety. As a curious person who’s passionate about looking after buildings as beautiful as this, it's such a privilege to work here.”

Rosie Partington, a project manager working with the construction team on the Clandon project. Working with a multidisciplinary team of experts, Rosie is project managing the work to consolidate and conserve the plasterwork in the house, including the columns in the Marble Hall.

Meet Benny, conserving Clandon's chimneys

"Standing in the Marble Hall during my first site visit after the 2015 fire, I was overwhelmed by a sense of place. The house reveals layers of story as an architectural palimpsest, where earlier uses and historic fabrics coexist with later additions, including the scars of the fire.

“I love working on the Clandon Project. I’m learning all the time and from experts at the top of their field. I’ve worked on conservation projects before, but nothing as complex as Clandon.

“The Design Team ran Pilot Works to test and learn the best conservation approach for the chimney stacks. Chimney 4 was weather worn with fire damage from years of domestic fires. It was also leaning because of destabilisation in the 2015 fire. The chimney stack was partially dismantled for closer investigation. It was then rebuilt using new and salvaged bricks, along with new stone and lime mortar. This gave us a good understanding of the existing chimney construction and informed our proposal to retain the remaining 13 chimneys, supporting each one with external Corten steel straps to resist wind loading.

“Together with the Design Team, I produced the elevation drawings with detailed information about each chimney element and the repair work requirements so the craftspeople can clearly understand what’s needed for each area. We’re working to the Trust’s conservation principle to ‘conserve first before replacement’ so each brick is carefully recorded and labelled before repair work is carried out.”

“I’m working with the Trust’s curator, conservation specialists, as well as the UK’s leading heritage bricklayers, stonemasons, timber specialists, and structural engineers with conservation expertise. It’s a really collaborative relationship. We have a good discussion with everyone sharing their expertise so we can reach a decision together.”

Benny Chung, an architect working on the Essential Works part of the Clandon Project. Alongside a fellow architect, Benny has been creating the designs for the works to conserve and stabilise the surviving brick and stone structure, including the chimney stacks.

Meet Alastair, mapping historic graffiti

“We’re working with a wide definition of graffiti. I expected it to include names, and we’re also looking for makers marks and marks made during construction. Where a staircase has burned away, you can now see the line put on the wall as a guide to follow by the carpenter installing it.

“We could see the fire at Clandon from our window that night. I came on a tour as soon as I could and was fascinated by what I could see of the surviving building and what it showed about how the house was constructed. When I retired, I was looking for something to do and thought I could do tours of the house. I gave tours of buildings in my job so I knew I could do them. When the tours stopped, I volunteered to help with research so I could still be involved with Clandon.

“I’ve got detailed plans of all the interior elevations of the house marked with gridlines, and orthographic images for each area which I’m examining for signs of graffiti. I’m recording a detailed description of what I’m seeing in each grid on a spreadsheet. It’s meticulous.

“Sometimes it’s hard to tell if it’s graffiti or a natural feature in a brick. There’s different dates and styles of writing from different historic periods, and a concentration of graffiti in the basement and on the roof.

“The graffiti reflects the people who wanted to leave their mark, that they were here at Clandon, whether building the house or living there afterwards. It’s a human response to want to leave your mark. I found ‘John Porte’ on the photograph of this chimney but, looking at it now, it could actually be ‘John Porter’”

Alastair Gourlay, a research volunteer helping the curatorial team map the instances of historic graffiti in the building. Along with a fellow volunteer, Alastair has been examining ortho-photographs of the interiors and cross referencing to grid referenced elevations, meticulously mapping where people from Clandon’s past have made their mark.

Ten years of making Clandon

The fire, whilst sadly destroying much, at the same time revealed the story of how a great eighteenth-century house was built and the many hands whose skill and hard work were involved. Today, heritage craftspeople specialising in brickwork, masonry, joinery, and plasterwork are working with specialists and the Trust’s expert team to stabilise and conserve the brick and stone structure that survived the fire. Renewing Clandon today, through careful conservation and rebuilding, they’ll share a glimpse of their work including conserving decorative plasterwork, chimney stacks, and roof-top balustrades.

We’ll hear from a volunteer, a conservation student and a Trust curator, sharing their meticulous work to research and care for the Clandon collection. Making discoveries from piecing together ceramic fragments ready for conservation, to caring for furniture saved from the fire, and recording the many instances of graffiti found throughout the building.

Members of the local community will share how they are working with the team at Clandon as the Trust makes plans for Clandon’s future community role. A participant in one the workshops run by the artist Harold Offeh will share their experience of being part of the development of the art installation, The Lounge, recently exhibited at the Lightbox in Woking as part of a creative partnership between the Trust and the Gallery.

Hear from the Clandon community each week at this page and on the Clandon Park National Trust Facebook and Instagram accounts.