13th century church tower wins national architecture award

Sensitive conservation work to St Oswald’s Church tower and roof has won the SPAB’s (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) John Betjeman Award for excellence in conservation at a place of worship.

The Grade-I listed church dates back to the 13^th century and is most famous for its association with the poet William Wordsworth who, along with his family, is buried in the churchyard.

The annual award honours the memory of church enthusiast and SPAB member Sir John Betjeman and is made for outstanding repairs to the fabric of places of worship in England and Wales completed in the last 18 months. Importantly, the award is always made to the winning building rather than to individuals. This year’s John Betjeman Award attracted a record number of 24 entries from across England and Wales.

In Great British Churches Betjeman describes St Oswald’s, Grasmere as a “rough, massive old church” where the “jungle of black beams is an object lesson in elementary building, ingenious and indescribable”.

The tower of St Oswald’s was cement rendered in the 1920s. This coating had blown, cracked and was falling onto the public highway.

The project involved the removal of the render and raking out of the cement ribbon pointing. Raking out was time-consuming as large sections of masonry had been rebuilt in the 1920s and bedded on cement mortar which was compromising the breathability of the fabric. Tonnes of hot lime mortar were needed to consolidate the structure and complete the harling; for which the contractor cleverly adapted the scaffold to achieve a seamless finish.

Re-roofing the tower was an equally sympathetic undertaking. Replacements for the few broken tiles were Burlington Broughton Moor slates which, due to the large size required, were cut down from flagstones, hand-dressed, flame-finished and fixed with oak pegs.

The tower repairs at St Oswald’s were challenging, pioneering in the use of hot lime mortars on this scale and truly commendable. Great care was taken by both architect (Crosby Granger Architects) and contractor (UK Restoration Services) to retain as much historic fabric as possible and repair in a truly like-for-like manner, showing ‘exceptional’ attention to detail and execution.

The work was funded by the Parochial Church Council, Friends of St Oswald’s, sympathetic grant providers, generous individual contributions and great fundraising efforts from the local community.

A special part if this project was the outreach activities. Scaffold tours were conducted throughout the works allowing members of the local community to access the tower roof and see lime mortar works at first-hand. A final tour was held so locals could see the end-result of the project.

SPAB judging panel spokesperson and director at Friends of Friendless Churches, Rachel Morley said: “The work at St Oswald’s was extremely well-choreographed (between client, contractor and architect) and the attention to detail throughout was astonishing. Huge congratulations to the team at St Oswald’s, the very deserving winners of this year’s John Betjeman Award.”