A Devil of a Job:
A Devil of a Job
The beautiful parish church of St. Mary's Leckhampstead in Buckingharnshire, dating back to 1170, had it's Norman Tower - complete with devil gargoyles - restored by Gun-Point, the world's first mechanised repointing service.
The tower, built with cut stone quoins and buttresses with rubblestone between was suffering the twin problems of age and incorrect repairs in the past. The walls were covered with lichens and surface growths and many of the ancient stones were badly eroded because of the use of strong cement mortars in previous repointing.
Gun-Point firstly removed the surface grime with a low pressure water lance. In the hands of their skilled operators this was found to offer the most thorough result with the least damage to the structure.

Missing stones were replaced to match the original ones prior to Gun-Point's patented mortar pump and gun injecting a lime rich mortar into the raked joints. The mortar chosen was a Grade CY) 1:3:10, the weakest of the gauged mortars, as it best matched the strength and character of the original lime bedding mortar .The finish was a traditional "bagged" strike to repeat what was believed to be the original.

Peter Bradley of Buckingham, the Supervising Architect, was originally a little apprehensive about the use of power tools on such an old and loved building. "The work has been done thoroughly with hardly any damage and the results are very pleasing" he commented.

The main contractors were Harrich Builders of Buckingham. The Supervising Architect was Mr. Peter Bradley. Acting as the Consulting Architect for the English Heritage, was Brian Austin of the architectural practice Featherstone Austin Woodward of Northampton. The work was jointly funded by the Oxford Diocese. English Heritage and the parishioners of Leckhampstead Village.