Castle Drogo and exterior, post-conservation work.
© National Trust/ Alice Ealdmoor
The kitchen’s lantern window.
Courtesy of the National Trust/ Castle Drogo
An aerial view of the lightwell for Drogo’s larders. This drew indirect light into them and helped keep the rooms at a low temperature. Courtesy of the National Trust/ Castle Drogo
The scullery and kitchen beyond, which includes wooden sinks designed to stop crockery breaking as it might do more easily in ceramic ones. Courtesy of the National Trust/ Castle Drogo
North elevation at Lindisfarne. Photo © Scott Hughes
Restoring the windows at Lindisfarne. © National Trust/ Nick Lewis
Newly raised roof at Lindisfarne. © National Trust Images/ Chris Lacey
Report on Progess Made at Drogo and Lindisfarne Castles Before and After the Spring Lockdown
Castle Drogo
By Ben Dale, Collections & House Manager
Like all National Trust houses, Castle Drogo went into lockdown in mid-March, which seems an age away now. Everything was put on hold – our interpretation plans, collections conservation work and a major building project to address the longterm water ingress issues at Drogo. All but a handful of staff were put on furlough and the whole site was closed with the exception of the countryside. This has remained open throughout to offer everyone an escape to nature, which has been and continues to be so important at this time.
Nine weeks later, in June, we got the green light to resume our building project, although strict measures were in place to operate safely while we were in the grips of the pandemic. The lantern window in the kitchen has been reinstated and the pointing has been completed. The masonry to the west of the window has also been rebuilt as has the roof over the scullery and larders.
In early August, the builders gave us access again to the kitchens and scullery; it was a breathtaking moment for me to see them without scaffolding and site equipment. The iconic, large, round Edwin Lutyens able in the kitchen is yet to be moved to its original position, which we can do once the humidity levels have stabilised.
Work has also been completed to seal the roof of the wood store, which is below ground level to the left of the front door and will be fully covered again when the forecourt is resurfaced. In terms of future plans, the work will now focus on the pointing and the reinstatement of the final doors before tackling some snagging areas and reinstatement of the paths and forecourt.
Our gardens and café have now reopened. The castle remains closed as we’re unable to offer a second exit to the building to create the safe one-way route needed for us to adhere to social distancing guidelines. We’re using the time to push ahead with the building project and undertake some essential health and safety works. We look forward to welcoming you to the full site as soon as we can.
Please check our website (www.nationaltrust.org.uk/castle-drogo) for the most up-to-date opening arrangements.
Lindisfarne Castle
By Nick Lewis, Collections & House Manager
Lockdown at Lindisfarne came at a bad time for everyone. Here on the Northumberland coast, spring and summer are busy periods since they are when we get the vast majority of our paying visitors, so obviously lockdown had a major negative impact on the economy of the area.
Looking purely at the castle though, lockdown could scarcely have come at a better time. Almost exactly two years before the building was closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, we had just completed a two-year conservation project here. Its main aim was to bring the castle up to a level where it could be maintained into the future. That meant a huge amount of work was needed to repair and restore the building envelope – the roof, walls, windows and surface drainage outdoors – with the express desire to improve the control of how the building reacted to its environment. In particular, this meant enabling it to resist rain and salt-laden water vapour, which regularly permeate the castle.
External and internal walls had to be raked out, removing all defective cement mortars joining the stones together. The massive voids caused in places by centuries of water ingress had to be filled, so that the walls could be replastered internally and repointed and sneck-harled externally. To sneck-harl is to apply a wall finish usually used in Scotland, which we think Edwin Lutyens adopted at Lindisfarne; a lime-mortar mix is spread over the surface of the external rubble leaving only the most prominent stones showing, then sand is thrown (or ”harled”) on to this to add a layer of protection. The original windows had a basic design flaw, so all 108 were removed, dismantled and reassembled with new waterproofing cement before being restored to their newly secured reveals. Secured in this case means installing brass bars around the windows, which holds them in place. (The bars are then concealed with sand mastic.)
In 2015, I calculated that rainwater drained away from about 60 per cent of our roof through a single, inaccessible downpipe on the north side. Our architects redesigned the central part of the roof to reduce this to about 22 per cent and divert most of the rainwater to the rock face on the south.
Had lockdown happened before this work had been carried out – and I had had to work from home most of the week – I dread to think how busy my single day on site every week would have been.
