At a glance
Oreston Methodist Church
At Leyden, the word ‘integrity’ is important to us. It ‘covers off’ everything we do. But let’s see what that looks like in practical terms on a real life project.
Recently we worked on a former Methodist Chapel in Oreston, just outside Plymouth. The building itself is well over 100 years old and it’s a perfect period property. The Methodist Church still own the building and their plan is to convert it into a holiday rental property, located just 100 yards from the water’s edge on the River Plym.
Leyden were called in because the building itself required some much-needed attention. Over the years, it had deteriorated and the stonework had been poorly repointed using sand and cement. The correct solution for this job is lime. It’s what would have been used originally, it works as good today as it did when the building was first constructed and it will preserve the building now for another 100 years.
Once we started, it took us days to painstakingly remove the existing sand and cement pointing without damaging the stonework. Once prepped, we then started to replace the lime pointing by hand before using the traditional technique of draping it in hessian cloth to control the rate of drying. The process was then completed by delicate hand finishing which brought the building back to life and ready for another 100 years.
What this demonstrated at Oreston is genuine ‘integrity’ in the way we work and it’s the very essence of why we’re serious about craftsmanship at Leyden.
