St Botolphs Church, ‘the Stump’, Boston, is a Grade I listed church in the Lincoln Diocese.
With a leaking Belfry roof and many eroded and unstable stones to the west window and high levels of the tower, the significant St Botolph Church in Boston needed major structural repairs. There were also issues with an unsafe, high-level walkway that needed to be addressed to ensure safe access to the maintenance of this iconic building.
The church received a substantial grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to undertake the works, but before the repairs to the windows, tower and roof could begin, first came the mammoth task for the scaffolders. They built the structure from the ground up on the west face of the tower and later received an award for their design and implementation of the structure.
The vulnerable west window had been supported with an internal scaffold for several months prior to the works commencing and once on site the west windows were removed and repaired, the cast iron frames were taken away to be refurbished, and the windows were reglazed before being reinstalled.
Stone repairs and replacements to the west elevation were undertaken, focusing on the rebuilding and stabilisation of the window tracery and arches. A Poultice clean was carried out on the heavy carbon deposits and a doff stone cleaning was used generally to reduce the carbon deposits elsewhere on the stonework. The west windows are now secure, and the tower stonework stable.
The leaking Belfry roof was replaced with new lead and a safety system added to aid the tower maintenance. The high-level walkway was replaced with a high-grade stainless-steel mesh, and new doors were provided at each level of the tower to access the maintenance route.
For more information and enquiries, please
Contact Soul Architects