We
directed the restoration of the grade I historic park of Hawkstone
in Shropshire working with the landscape architect Simon Walding
and the architects Oliver West and John Scott which won both Civic
Trust and Europa Nostra awards for both the restoration work and
new build restaurant and visitor centre. This 19th century park
used the dramatic outcrops of red sandstone to combine bridges,
follies, a grotto, and monument to create a much-visited ‘sublime’
landscape.
The restoration, which took place
after considerable public consultation and engagement, needed
the restoration of a complex public access system involving steps
cut in the rock, frightful leaps over vertiginous falls and the
replanting of darkly disturbing shrubberies and pinneries.
The project, necessitating considerable
historic research, involved the use of traditional and replica
construction techniques, modern repair and construction techniques
applied both to new and historic fabric, specialist conservation/construction
techniques (lime plasters, brickwork and stonework in lime mortar,
reproduction joinery...), special manufacture of components to
match original details and specialist artists, subcontractors
and consultants.
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