The Church of St Thomas in Brampton is a Grade II listed church in the Derby Diocese.
The tower roof coverings were failing and were in very poor condition with areas of water ingress. This resulted in the Church of St Thomas being added to Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register. The works required essential repairs to the Tower, this included re-visiting the steel pinnacle restraints which were added in the 1960s.
Full scaffolding was erected for the execution of the works, including a high-level gantry upon which to store the dismantled masonry. Initially the idea was to take down the pinnacles and rebuild them incorporating central continuous stainless-steel dowels, but once on site it became clear that we would need to modify the proposals. We devised a system of stainless-steel strapping and dowelling to tie the parapets and pinnacles together.
We discovered a swarm of bees at the start of the project and with the rate of honeybees in decline we were very aware of the need to conserve them. Obviously, the safety of the builders working at height was high priority and with the size of the hive (approximately 25,000 bees) moving them was not an option. We were advised on the best way to address this situation while a suitable solution was agreed.
Once a strategy was in place works were completed.
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