Masons Jim Kirby and Mark Ford met when they were working on the restoration of the Chapter House at Westminster Abbey. They usually work for the better known London specialist stone and conservation contractors but for the replacement of a Bath stone tracery window at The New Covenant Church in Streatham, South London, they were the contractors.

“It is not a huge job, so it didn’t really need a major contractor, but it was nice for us. We’re both nearly 50 and have been doing the work for a long time, so we know what to do,” Jim told NSS. “Mark went to Bath College and I went to Weymouth. And we have both studied historic stone carving at City & Guilds of London Art School in Kennington Park Road, London.

“It took us three months to make this window. We drew all the setting out by hand. This allows us to accommodate any eccentricities in the original. We re-used four stones from the old window. There was some movement in the brick relieving arch. The arch wasn't tied into the core brickwork and was coming away from the building. We pinned every fourth brick, drilling through the face into the core work and pushing in stainless steel pins anchored with polyester resin.”

The stone was bought sawn-six-sides from Stanley’s Quarry “who were fantastic,” says Jim. He can be contacted at jim@jk-stonecarving.info / 07855 452072. 

*If you have a project you would like to share with the industry, send a photo or two and a few details to Natural Stone Specialist at nss@qmj.co.uk.