Past & Present Work

Project: Mediaeval Plaster Frieze, West Banqueting House, Chipping Campden.
Client: The Landmark Trust
Architect: Rodney Melville and Partners
Date: 2002-2003

History

The frieze was cast not free-hand modelled, a repeating pattern of mythical beasts and stylised fruit and flowers. It was part of a wider decorative scheme incorporating moulded plaster cornices, arches and columns.

We received the frieze as two boxes of fragments with only a very small proportion remaining in situ. An early scale drawing showing part of the frieze and cornice helped us to piece together the fragments. Only about thirty percent of the whole had survived, and working out where they were positioned in the building was the biggest challenge, because the frieze spanned two large rooms.

The Project:

Immediate protection of the remaining fragments in situ with facing tissue


Consolidation of friable plaster pieces using an acrylic dispersion

Careful removal of dirt and layers of paint and limewash

Piecing back together and fixing the broken pieces


Fixing sections to the wall.

Fragments of frieze

Piecing together of section after cleaning

Sections attatched on site

West Banqueting House, Chipping Campden

Work in progress