Lime Pointing Continues
Work at Scartho Cemetery has been steadily progressing. The very top of the steeple is undergoing repointing with a lime mortar mix. With the steeple at a height and with a ferocious sea breeze, the weathering is very noticeable. Being exposed to the elements has eroded a lot of the previous mortar in the brickwork.
Happily, our crew is on-site to get busy working on this. We’ve got a lime mortar mix cooking away and are re-pointing the must crucial joints in the steeple. They’re not all damaged, so we’re not raking out any healthy joints.
The weather is what you might expect of an autumnal October day on the Lincolnshire coast. The rain tends to roll in at relatively short notice! Plus at the top of the scaffolding it can get a bit nippy. Although excessive rain can be detrimental to pointing joints, in this case we’ve got sufficient protection on the scaffold to prevent the weather doing any damage. Wet stone is actually beneficial to the mortar… up to a point.
New Door And Demolition
While all that is going on at the summit, there’s some delicate demolition at ground level. The lodge building has been empty and abandoned for many years now but it’s springing back into life. Originally the building consisted of a block of toilets and a small front room. These toilets have been removed and will be turned into office space. A small space to one side will see toilets reinstalled at a later date. To create access from the front room to the new office space, a new door is required. We’re not really the kind to swing a wrecking ball, so we’re chipping out the bricks in the wall to make a doorframe.
It’s a delicate destruction, the doorframe needs to go in but we can’t risk and structural damage. So bit by bit the bricks come out, are disposed of, and the frame is ensured to be secure. You’ll see in the video how our restoration operative used lasers to make sure the measurements were accurate and the frame was straight.
The steeple pointing is a lengthy procedure that we’ll be keeping a close eye on over the coming weeks. Stay tuned to our social pages and YouTube feed for all the latest!