Period
Property Interiors
Lincoln Crown Court, Lincoln
The restoration and conservation of Lincoln Crown Court
was a major project with specialist work carried out under
the careful supervision of English Heritage and Architect
Rodney Melville.
 Initially,
the work only covered the conservation of one of the Judge’s
chambers, but eventually progressed to include the restoration
and conservation of all of the three main courts.
The scope of work covered the complete restoration and
conservation of benches, judge’s
chambers, galleries and the dock. Work within the galleries
also covered 3 dimensional plaster which
was fitted with oak concave moulding.
 In
Court No. 1 and 2, the original French Polished finish
was revealed by carefully removing the secondary finish.
Then, all splits, shakes and broken tenons repaired, floating
panels re-aligned, missing moulding and carvings replaced
and all redundant service holes were plugged with ellipses
of period timber. All restored timber was colour blended
using natural oil based dyes to match the original and
finally re-French Polished sympathetically throughout.
Unlike varnish, this finish will now actually improve with
age when maintained appropriately with beeswax.
 The magnificent gothic entrance doors were removed from
their hinges and fully restored using a traditional oil
finish composition of linseed, tung oil, turpentine and
sunflower.
This was burnished into the wood using
a hessian wrapped pebble, which had the effect of bruising
the wood to allow the oil to enter without damaging the
surface or finish.
The work on Court No. 1, 2 and
3 of Lincoln Crown Court was so extensive it needed 12
craftsmen on site for 11 months working 6 days - the
whole team being thrilled to be involved in the complete
restoration of this magnificent public building. |
