Historic Churches 2017

BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON

HISTORIC CHURCHES

TH ANNUAL EDITION

Using mid-19th and early 20th-

century photographs, Alan Lamb was able

to determine which elements had been

lost over time and a number of these were

replaced. The decision on what to replace

was generally guided by the ‘six-foot rule’:

if it can’t easily be seen from six feet away,

don’t replace it.

After careful test cleaning and analysis

of the layers of the varnish and paint

it was discovered that for at least the

first 50 years the carved limewood had

been left undecorated. Having become

very dirty and dusty, it had been given

a ‘reviving’ coat of oil-based lead paint

directly over the original surface finish

(without even attempting to clean it, a

layer of dirt was clearly visible under

the first application of paint). This was

an attempt to replicate the original

realised that the Evangelists at the north

east and south west had been swapped

sometime after this date. The beardless

Evangelist (St John) has now been

correctly replaced with his eagle, facing

into the chapel.

The two magnificent pierced panels

in the antechapel screen are also

carved in Bermudan cedar. Thorough

cleaning to reveal the original finish

has shown them to be carved to an

exceptionally high standard and, like

the limewood, to be some of Grinling

Gibbons’ best work. Late Victorian

photographs showed that these screens

had previously faced the other way,

which is how they have been reinstated:

the putti now face outwards into the

antechapel, as originally intended.

The pierced cedar panels and the

figures on the pediment had been

finished in a thick, dark varnish,

obscuring the quality of the original

carving. A key piece of research

indicated that this dark scheme was a

Victorian intervention. In 1867, following

a visit to Trinity, Mr WG Rogers

presented a paper to the Royal Institute

of British Architects in which he noted:

When I was there, I complained to

the verger that I could not make

out the faces of the angels on the

altar pediment, but when I put my

hand on the open worked panels, I

found they had been painted over

with a thick oil darkened with

Vandyke brown as sticky and moist

as if it had been done over less

than a week ago.

Since even unboiled linseed oil would

have dried within a couple of months,

Rogers’ account helped to establish the

date of the dark varnish quite accurately

and corroborated the analysis of the

varnish report.

Many of the chapel’s important wood

carvings had retained this dark finish

for 150 years, so ‘winding the clock back’

to before the Victorian intervention

was a drastic proposal. However, the

combination of the varnish analysis and

historical research convinced the college

and the diocesan advisory committee to

allow the carvings to be returned to the

appearance that Grinling Gibbons and

Bathurst intended. As much of the dark

varnish as could safely be removed was

carefully lifted to reveal the carvings

beneath in their original glory.

In the process of cleaning the

woodwork, the restorers were able

to discern the marks of the different

carvers, adding greatly to the

understanding of how Grinling Gibbons’

workshop carried out the work.

appearance and colour of the limewood

and since then it has been repainted

several times.

Alan Lamb’s team cleaned off as

much of the paint and varnish as possible

without damaging the underlying wood,

and recreated the most significant missing

elements, leaving carvings that are now

close to their original appearance.

THE SCREEN

The figures of the Evangelists, which rest

on the pediment of the antechapel screen

along with their symbols – a winged bull,

an eagle, a winged lion and an angel – as

well as the two Victories on the pediment

of the reredos, are carved in oak and rare

Bermudan cedar (

Juniperus bermudiana

This type of cedar is no longer available

because the trees are endangered, but

fortunately one of the college’s generous

donors found a small supply of old timber

which enabled repairs to be carved from

matching wood.

When the Evangelists were

being reinstalled, Alan Lamb’s team

encountered difficulty in fitting the

eagle to the figure at the north east.

On checking a 1914 photograph it was

The partially cleaned faces of putti from the antechapel screen: the thick varnish had been applied in the 1860s,

obscuring fine detail in the Bermudan cedar carvings

Woodworm damage in carvings of the reredos

Conservator David Mendieta carving a repair to

replace a missing leaf tip