Work Undertaken
Following an ‘incident’ that resulted in the face of the arch being pulled off the front of the wall as a film location truck left one of the Dockyard tunnels, Georgian Brickwork were appointed by Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust to rebuild the arch using ‘Red Rubbers’ produced by Lambs Brickmakers.
As none of the original bricks were salvageable, Lambs surveyed the remaining brickwork and measured for a new gauged arch with 2mm joints to match the original arch and others in the vicinity. They created detailed drawings then cut and rubbed the voussoirs (the individual bricks) to the specific dimensions.
Although our team are familiar with the arch installation process it is unusual for us to be involved in building such a large arch and we approached the task with care! In the end the installation of the arch went very smoothly. But ‘making good’ the brickwork around the arch was more of a challenge. To disguise the gaps between the face of the wall and the gauged arch, we coloured mortar to create the illusion that the bricks were bonded right up to the arch. Can you spot where we did it?
