Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
harden relatively quickly so the exuded joints are not trimmed until they begin
to show signs of stiffening. The completed work is then left to dry-out ready for
carving. Though carving can be undertaken by a highly-skilled brickmason,
normally it is the preserve of the 'trade carver', using soft stone carving tools,
saws, scribes, abrasives and other bespoke tools of his own making, working to
the established setting-out lines and templates to carve the final shape (Fig. 159).
Figure 159
The Bedfordshire
County Crest,
in situ
carved by the Author on
to a panel of rubbing
bricks setting in whiting
and knotting in 1991.
(Courtesy of Ian Parry)
The present situation although far from satisfactory, is certainly much more
enlightened than one could dare to have hoped for twenty years ago. Some
good work is now being achieved in gauged work, which even occasionally fea-
tures on new properties once again, such as eighteen camber and two bullseye
arches built in 1998 on a large extension to an Edwardian country residence
in North Crawley (Buckinghamshire). (See Case studies) Also six large-span,
bonded, segmental arches on a private residence Prince's Place, Holland Park,
London, 2001 (Fig. 160).
The renovation of the Grade I listed St Pancras station as the new London ter-
minus for Eurostar international services also furnished a remarkable and unu-
sual opportunity to replicate the gauged brickwork of the original building.
To facilitate construction of a new sub-surface station for the cross-London
Thameslink service, it was necessary to demolish buildings immediately west of
the famous train shed. Normally demolition of a major part of a key listed build-
ing would be neither desirable nor permissible but, as a Government sponsored
project, the issue of public benefit took precedence over listed building issues
with consent being granted by Act of Parliament instead of through normal listed
building legislation.
Sixty million bricks were required for the original construction of St Pancras,
mainly supplied by Thomas Gripper's Nottingham Patent Brick Company.
Tuckers of Loughborough also supplied bricks for the west side of the station.
Wheeler Brothers of Reading (Berkshire) and Allen of Ballingdon (Suffolk),
