Plaster restoration at historic Grade II Listed Ingleby Arncliffe Church

It was a pleasure to visit our craftsmen on site last week on this wonderful historic church restoration project. The team are working at the picturesque Church of All Saints in Ingleby Arncliffe on the second hottest day of the year so far in North Yorkshire! Located in an idyllic spot, right beside part of the Coast to Coast walk, All Saint's Church dates back to 1821, replacing an earlier church which was in existence since the 12th century.

Some of the original features of the sandstone medieval church were incorporated into the present structure. The Norman 12th-century porch is still standing and we're helping to protect it. We are carrying our plaster restoration by removing Gypsum and replacing with traditional 3 coat lime haired plaster.

Ben, John and apprentice Joe were not alone in All Saints... The church is also home to effigies of Sir William Colville and his brother Sir Robert dated around 1300 AD. During the reign of Edward I, Robert Colville was present at the muster at Carlisle. From 1300-20, he was the commissioner of array for York, responsible for conscripting local men to fight. It is very likely that he would have been at Bannockburn in 1314.

Taking into account the historic importance of these statues, we found Ben in the Chancel. He was hard at work building a protective frame around Sir William as an area of plaster above the statue was to be knocked off. Once this damaged plaster is removed and the original sandstone beneath revealed, a slurry coat base will be applied to even up the surface before the scratch coat can be put on.

With the laborious part of  this project now finished, the coming weeks will see us back to complete a scratch coat, a float coat and a finishing skim coat. The church will be used for a wedding in June so needs to look perfect by then!