Work at St Mary’s Church in Adderbury commended at awards

Project to repair the stonework included design input from local children

The repair and restoration work recently completed at St Mary’s Church in Adderbury has been named as one of the Commended Projects at the annual Natural Stone Awards.   The commendation was made in the Repair & Restoration category during an online ceremony last Friday (March 19).

The awards are organised by Stone Federation Great Britain – the official trade association for the natural stone industry.   Now in it’s 20th year, the Natural Stone Awards were set up to celebrate the best examples of the use of natural stone in construction projects.

St Mary’s in Adderbury is a Medieval Grade 1 listed building. The church was the recipient of Heritage Lottery Fund grants which enabled the repair of the tower and spire as well a number of carvings.

Repairs were made to the top of the spire and tower parapet level.   The main scope of the work related to rebuilding the parapets, with a number of new stones, laid on bed so that they do not delaminate. 

Archival research identified that the original stones used for the building were local, fine grained limestones, including Taynton.  This led to an appropriate alternative of Syresford limestone to be used in this project, which offered durability and the ability to take carved detail.

New carving was sympathetically pieced in to existing remains.

School children from Christopher Rawlins Primary School were involved in the design of two new gargoyles, which were adeptly carved, referencing the style of the originals.

The exceptional frieze carvings on the north and south aisles were carefully conserved with fine pinning, lime mortars and sheltercoats.

The Judges were impressed with how the philosophy of approach has produced a considerate result and the skilled craftsmanship does credit to that of the original.

---

Published: 26/03/2021 10:56am by Banbury FM Newsteam

---