Ashley Courtney Architect

St Mary-le-Tower

High Level Masonry Repairs

St Mary-le-Tower is the civic church of Ipswich, and in 2014 we were responsible for overseeing an extensive range of repairs to the fabric, amounting to £115,000 excl vat.

The works covered most areas of the church except for the tower. They involved repointing many areas of the knapped flintwork, notably the south clerestory, and nave gable, where the Victorian black mortar had perished. It also required a number of stone repairs and replacements. The eroded offset stones to one buttress, with a large ornate pinnacle above, had rotated significantly, and we had to rebuild this and replace stones whilst propping up the pinnacle.

Conservation cleaning was also carried to the east end of the chancel, containing ornate Victorian niches and statues, and the richly carved west front doors. With careful supervision and discussions with the conservator this turned out to be a great success.

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