July 23, 2020

Old Palace Lodge Hotel, Dunstable: Repair and restraint of the old clunch wall

Our Technical Director Matt Groves has recently published an article about Old Palace Lodge Hotel in Dunstable repair and restraint of the old clunch wall in Listed Heritage magazine July/August issue.

The Old Palace Lodge Hotel was creating a Tudor garden landscaping scheme in the area of ground formerly occupied by ‘The Norman King’ public house. The Norman King was opened in the
1960s and comprised a thatched roof over predominantly brickwork walls. One wall of the building on the street facing elevation, however, incorporated a panel of much older, clunch stone masonry.

Clunch stone is another name for chalk when used in construction and is normally softer and more friable than other building stones. It is susceptible to weathering as it is highly permeable and susceptible to pollution driven acid erosion. Moisture is the principal cause of its deterioration. The clunch found in the wall panel would have come from the nearby Tottenhoe Quarry, part of a chalk seam that extends into Cambridgeshire and is often referred to as Cambridgeshire Clunch.

The site team were unable to find a solution that was acceptable to all parties and AKSWard was commissioned for their conservation knowledge to review the issues and propose a solution that would both be structurally secure and follow good conservation principles.

To read full article please follow the link below:

Matt Groves article for Listed Heritage – Old Palace Lodge Hotel, Dunstable

As seen in Listed Heritage, membership journal of the Listed Property Owners’ Club

www.lpoc.co.uk