We were appointed to prepare the Conservation Management Plan in support of the Council’s successful Heritage Lottery Fund bid which received a grant award of £798,600, together with a Historic Scotland grant of £241,400. We also prepared the Schedule of Work relating to the grant-assisted works together with a Maintenance Plan to ensure there is a comprehensive strategy in place for planned maintenance of the building.
The project was led by Renfrewshire Council Architect’s department and our role entailed providing conservation advice as Conservation Architects. This involved the preparation of drawings and NBS specifications for conservation work including lead roof replacement, stone repairs and replacement, window repair/replacement, extensive plasterwork reinstatement, and extensive rotworks.
Missing stone urns were re-created based on a surviving heavily weathered half-engaged urn and the associated supporting stone plinths were re-created to replace inappropriate rendered brick plinths at roof parapet level. Plaster repairs and reinstatement throughout the building included the conservation of elaborate cornice work where this had to be removed to enable rot repairs and replacement of wall plates and joist ends. Significantly-damaged elaborate cornice work in the main hall was restored following the removal of a modern suspended ceiling insertion and associated heavy steel sections.
The main roof rainwater guttering was replaced in code 8 lead. The gutter strategy retained the existing layout but introduced twin directional flows to reduce the historical problems of blockages from debris entering the deep gutters and sumps. Cast iron rainwater goods were restored or replaced to reflect their condition. Extensive re-pointing of external stonework was coupled with indenting and replacement of heavily eroded string-course and
cornicing. Stone crack repairs were undertaken using Paraloid B72 acrylic resin based repair mortar and stone dust where cracks at fissures were less than 2mm wide. Existing tie rods and pattress plates were cleaned and given a protective coating, together with retention of historical tram ferramenta.
The work was grant aided by Historic Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
A glass time capsule was found high up in the facade during the restoration work. It contained newspapers, coins and other artifacts. See National TV news feature: www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7TifvzeoGs
