Botanic Gardens

The main items of the works included:

• Conservation of metalwork gates, including main gates to Botanic Gardens, vehicle entrance at Queen Margaret Drive, three pedestrian gates on Queen Margaret Drive and Great Western Road, double gates to the Children’s Garden and double gates to Kirklee Quadrant
• Restoration of heritage luminaires at the Main Gates and Kirklee Gates
• Restoration of the perimeter railings, including painting and replacement of missing sections
• Steam cleaning of sandstone cope to perimeter wall and replacement of damaged brickwork with sandstone
• Restoration of sandstone gate pillars
• Painting of heritage street light
• Repairs to brick wall at Silver Slipper site

As we started the restoration of the railings, we found that approximately 1000no. of the ferrules at the base of the railing were missing. We fabricated new ferrules that could be attached to the railing in-situ, thus removing the need to take the fence down to be restored. Resin was used to seal and join the two halves of the ferrules together before they were painted along with the remainder of the fence.

The restoration required at the Botanic Gardens involved a combination of on-site and off-site works. For the off-site, the larger gates were taken down and transported to our covered warehouse for specialist repair and painting in a controlled environment.

The lanterns that were to be repaired and brought back into use were transported and replaced in a similar manner. Once restoration was complete, the sections were carefully transported back to site for reinstating, and new wiring and lights were fitted, tested and commissioned.

The sandstone wall supporting the fence around the boundary of the Botanic Gardens was cleaned using a DOFF unit, and areas of the wall that had been previously repaired in brick were removed and fully restored in sandstone.