Conservation in Action

The redecoration of two 18th-century churches this year illustrates the Trust’s scrupulous approach to preserving and maintaining an appropriate decorative scheme.

First impressions of a Trust church are likely to stay with visitors for a long time, and the decorative state of the interior is bound to be a fundamental part of that impression. For a mediaeval church, re-limewashing the walls may be all that is needed to cheer up a shabby interior, but how does the Trust approach redecoration at churches of later and more elaborate architectural periods, those from the 17th to 19th centuries? This article uses two very different churches from the 18th century, both of which were redecorated in the year under review, as examples of the Trust’s approach.

St Mary Magdalene, at Croome D’Abitot, was consecrated in 1763. Built to designs by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, the interior is attributed to Robert Adam. The building is of considerable architectural importance, reflected in its grade I listed status. Pevsner described it as ‘both externally and internally of the highest merit. It is in fact one of the most serious churches of the early Gothic revival outside, one of the most elegant inside.’ By the end of the 1990s, the Trust had done much to put the fabric into a good state of repair, but an outbreak of dry rot had resulted in major repairs to the plaster while the decoration, a layer of emulsion from the 1960s, was causing damp problems and not adhering well.

In order to decide how to present the interior, it was important first to establish all of the previous decorative phases. The history of the building of the church and subsequent alterations was well documented – St Mary’s was still very much as it had been in the 1760s. Further detailed historical research was therefore considered to be unnecessary. The Trust appointed a historic paint expert to investigate the layers of decoration to the walls, columns, stone dressings, ceilings and timber door surrounds.

Analysis in this context did not simply mean taking a few paint ‘scrapes’. A total of 50 samples of the paint layers were taken, each attached to a small piece of the substrate. These were then mounted in resin, ground to expose cross-sections of the painted surfaces, and examined under an electron microscope. The thickness of the layers and the constituents of the decorative finish (which can date the paint) can all be determined from this method. At Croome the samples indicated that the plaster was decorated, until the 1960s, in soft distemper which had, as was usual, been washed off before each decoration and so had survived only partially. However, it was clear that successive schemes followed the original. The walls and arch-soffits, with their plaster mouldings, had been decorated throughout in a stone colour varying from a tint resembling Bath stone through a series of cooler and deeper tones and finishing with the buttery yellow of the 1960s. The ceiling and cornices were all originally decorated in a warm off-white, and followed by greyish, then bluish tones before being painted in brilliant white.

Two important discoveries were made: the cornices and mouldings had not been picked out in colour, in the manner associated with domestic interiors of the mid-18th century, and samples from the stone dressings and columns suggested that these elements were originally undecorated. After careful consideration the Trust decided to remove the emulsion layer and paint the interior using a casein bound distemper. A warm stone colour was chosen for the walls and off-white for the ceiling, the intention being to use colours close to, and in the spirit of, the first scheme without attempting to make an academic copy of them. All the paint was removed from the stone dressings and columns to reveal the stone.

The redecoration of St Werbugh, Derby, was a much greater challenge, given the complexities of the building. Of Saxon origins, the church had been much altered since mediaeval times. By 1999 the Trust was considering redecoration of the interior. The latest decorative scheme was still sound in most areas, but it was dirty and appeared unsympathetic to the architecture of the church.

The complexities at St Werburgh prompted the Trust to appoint a historic building consultant to undertake an archaeological and architectural analysis, looking particularly for any written evidence of earlier decorative schemes. The research uncovered some interesting points but no details of decoration. The chancel was rebuilt around 1708, the exterior of the rebuilt church in a drawing c.1826 shows the nave to be a three-bay classical façade, and the north aisle and the formation of a two-bay arcade with classical detailing was added in 1850. The nave was subsequently demolished when Blomfield’s large Gothic nave was built in 1894, relegating the surviving chancel and north aisle to the role of side chapel.

Paint analysis on site then followed. Interestingly, this revealed that the north aisle had four layers of plain paint, identical to the four uppermost layers of paint in the chancel, the top layer being emulsion. The chancel was found to have an additional three stencilled schemes preceded by three layers of buff and brown, with the cornice and pilaster mouldings remaining gilded throughout later layers. From the samples from the ceiling it was possible to ascertain that it had at least seven layers, the earliest being limewashes.

The Trust’s dilemma was therefore how to put forward a decorative scheme that took account of the various changes to the church over time and sympathised with the slightly differing architectural styles that these changes had produced. After much deliberation, the scheme chosen was one that would highlight the important features of the church, unify the various architectural elements and act as a good base for the existing gilding.

The uppermost decorative layer was generally adhering well, so it was decided to use a new coat of emulsion over the top rather than remove the existing emulsion, with the risk of this damaging the underlying layers. The walls were decorated in buff, with the ceilings painted off-white.

It is the Trust’s hope that any redecoration work we do will help to display the church’s architecture while adding to to the beauty and eloquence of the building. At St Werburgh and St Mary Magdalene we believe that the work done this year will only enhance visitors’ experience of these fine buildings.

Sarah Robinson