Cliveden Conservation has welcomed His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to its Houghton workshop in Norfolk to see students from the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community’s Building Craft Apprenticeship at work.
The Apprentices are Christian Accolla and Daniel Iannone, who the Prince saw using their stonemasonry skills and helping restore a historic mosaic. As part of their placement with Cliveden Conservation the students have been working on a number of heritage projects, both in the company's workshop and onsite.
For four weeks, the students had been involved in carefully removing the mosaic from Stanford Hall in Loughborough. It is thought to be from a redecoration of the hall led by Sir Charles Allom in the 1930s. The mosaic was taken to the Cliveden Conservation workshop for repair. This work is part of Stanford Hall estate's transformation into the new Defence & National Rehabilitation Centre.
The £300million investment will see the world-class defence rehabilitation services currently delivered at Headley Court move to new, purpose-built facilities at Stanford Hall (the picture on the left shows what it should look like when it opens at the end of next year). The new facility will be four times the size of Headley Court and will improve and advance the cutting-edge treatments already available to injured members of the armed forces.
The work carried out by the students with Cliveden has included making substrates with cement and lime mortars ready for creating new panels and fitting on site.
Lewis Proudfoot, Stone Section Manager at Cliveden and an alumnus of the Building Craft Apprenticeship scheme, fully supports the Prince’s Foundation initiative.
“We were honoured that His Royal Highness visited our Norfolk workshop to see the students learning new skills," he says. "Every year we support the Prince's Foundation by giving students apprenticeship placements and the opportunity to work with our skilled craftsmen. The scheme allows the students to work with some of the UK's best heritage companies on prestigious projects – giving them invaluable experience for their careers ahead."
During the royal visit, Cliveden Conservation and representatives from the National Trust spoke to His Royal Highness about some of their recent projects together. The Prince heard about the award winning restored 18th century Gothic Tower at Wimpole, the replication of St Pauls Walden Bury statues for Stowe School and the restoration of the Nicolas Stone 17th century Hillingdon Venus for Cranford Park.
Simon Sadinsky, Head of Education at the Prince’s Foundation said during the Prince's visit: “We are tremendously grateful for all the support that Cliveden Conservation has provided to our Building Craft Apprenticeship programme.
"Today has provided an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the importance of having placement providers as dedicated as Cliveden Conservation, as well as the courses like our Apprenticeship programme that can foster these vital professional development opportunities.
"During their time on placement with Cliveden our students have been able to get hands on tuition from a talented group of craftspeople, not to mention participate in some incredible projects. Schemes like this are helping to keep this sector alive and attractive to new talent, not to mention securing the future of these traditional crafts.”