The undercroft at Priory House in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, is a rare and almost complete example of 13th century stonework that is currently on Historic England's Heritage at Risk register. To get it off the register, a project began in September to safeguard the historically significant structure, which is suffering the effects of movement that is cracking the stonework.

The repair of Priory House is being run by Dunstable High Street Heritage Action Zone. The £95million Government-funded High Streets Heritage Action Zone programme, which is delivered by Historic England, is intended to unlock the potential of historic high streets, fuelling economic, social and cultural recovery. It is working in partnership with Dunstable Town Council and Historic England at the Priory House.

The project to repair the undercroft sensitively, protecting and retaining as much of the original 13th century fabric as possible, is being progressed by structural engineers The Morton Partnership, building contractor Messenger and conservation specialist Cliveden Conservation.

Trudi Hughes, Historic England Heritage at Risk Surveyor, says: “The really exciting thing is that the undercroft, about which we knew very little other than it was reported to be 13th century, now reveals itself as the ground floor and part of the first floor of a 13th century building, with evidence of partitions.

“There’s a lot more medieval fabric within that 18th and 19th century shell than anybody ever thought before. It’s important that we save, restore and protect this much-loved building for local people and visitors to continue to explore and enjoy.”

As specialist contractor, Cliveden Conservation is focusing on the conservation and repair of the stonework and the external render.

The first stages of the work involve investigating the deterioration of the clunch stone in the undercroft from above and below the vaults to determine the most effective and appropriate method of conservation treatment.

Sarah Tattersall, Conservation Accredited Engineer for The Morton Partnership, says: “The project team have worked hard to understand the causes of the complex structural and environmental issues that have resulted in deterioration to the stonework, through research, investigation and monitoring.

“On the basis of this detailed understanding, proposals have been developed to conserve and sensitively repair the fabric, sourcing clunch stone from the local quarry operated by H G Clarke & Son at Totternhoe.”

Alongside the repair and conservation work, new research will record the rare features of the medieval undercroft and look to understand its relationship with Dunstable Priory more fully. The repairs and renovation are expected to take approximately 10 months.

There is more about the project here and you can watch an eight-minute video about it below.

Companies are being encouraged to enter the Risk-Reduction Through Design Award by explaining how they have reduced the risk of injury faced by their employees at work.

Last year’s winner redesigned a trolly and an oven so resin mixing bowls could be wheeled straight into the oven with no re-handling.

It not only eliminated lifting the bowls off the trolly and on to shelves in a hot oven, which involved lifting and twisting, often the cause of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), and the risk of spills and contact with hot parts, it made the job much quicker and improved productivity, as better health & safety so often does.

Not taking care of health & safety also risks losing injured staff while they recover – and most companies cannot afford to lose staff.

To help inspire employers to make workplaces safer the Risk Reduction Through Design Award encourages companies of all sizes to share their successes and, hopefully, inspire others to think about how they could improve the way they work.

The competition is open to all UK employers and is sponsored by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors (CIEHF).

All employers are obliged to try to remove or reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in staff as much as possible and simple changes to the design of workplaces, tasks or activities can have a big impact.

Employers in the UK who have designed a solution to reduce risks and avoid MSDs can nominate the design change for the Risk-Reduction Through Design Award.

How to enter

Explain on no more than two sides of A4 paper how you, as an employer, have reduced the risk of MSDs for your workers.

The competition is open to employers only. Nominations from consultants or marketing companies cannot be accepted, although they might have been involved in finding the solutions.

The nomination should include:

• a description of the task or activity and workplace before you made the change
• a description after you made the design change
• clear before and after photos
• a quote demonstrating what your workers think about the design change

Make it clear:

• if you designed the solution in-house or if someone else helped you. If someone else helped, say who it was and what they did
• explain what the impact of the design change is and how an MSD risk has been reduced
• say how many people this affects
• explain any other advantages of the design change. For example, other health or safety benefits, productivity improvements or environmental benefits
• itemise how you involved your employees in the process

Do NOT include any contact details on your nomination.

Email an entry of no more than two sides of A4 paper to msdpp@hse.gov.uk

In the email include:

• your name, email address and telephone number
• the full name and address of your business
• your company number

Closing date for nominations is 31 January 2023.

The winner will be announced in the summer next year at the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors awards event (a date for which has yet to be announced).

In previous years the judges have commended some nominations as well as choosing one as the winner.

HSE will use the winning entry and some of any commended entries as case studies which it will share widely.

See the latest podcast on manual handling in construction

The HSE’s latest podcast is linked to its current 'Your Health. Your Future' initiative to protect construction workers from work-related MSDs. (Listen to the podcast here)

Construction sites across Great Britain are currently (October and November) being visited by HSE inspectors as part of its initiative to raise awareness of health issues in relation to moving and handling materials. 

Last year, 40,000 construction workers reported suffering with work-related MSDs and the new podcast discusses what companies can do to promote change and protect their workforce from the risk of MSDs.

The podcast includes conversations with Matt Birtles, Principal Ergonomics & Human Factors Consultant at HSE, and Peter Crosland, National Civil Engineering Director at the Civil Engineering Contractors Association.

They talk about the impact MSDs can have on workers, employers' legal responsibilities and sensible control measures that can be introduced, regardless of the size of the company or the construction site.

You can assess your company’s risk of MSDs among employees using a digital version of HSE’s Manual Handling Assessment Charts (MAC) tool available free here.

And you can find out more about HSE's 'Your health. Your future' campaign here.

www.hse.gov.uk

Worktop Fabricators Federation (WFF) members, sponsors and prospective members from as far afield as Sheffield and Clacton converged on Dunstable, Bedfordshire, this month (October) for its latest face to face meeting, hosted by Michael Cohen’s natural stone and porcelain wholesale business of Imperial Stone.

Surrounded by some spectacular natural stones, several members felt the natural stone industry has a big education job to do, advising fabricators which natural stones can be used for worktops and what care and maintenance is needed for each. 

Many felt it was of growing importance because of the trend towards a return to natural materials at the top end of the market, which is likely to remain buoyant even if the current cost-of-living crisis impact on mid-value sales starts to worsen.

Emerging from the general discussions and information-sharing, the WFF is now pushing ahead with several policy objectives:

• CSCS Cards – members were keen to press on with developing a qualification or accreditation process to enable installer teams to obtain blue CSCS cards. WFF is looking to convene a small group of interested members to review the work so far and check through the various National Occupational Standards. Any members interested should email WFF Administrator Chris Pateman if they would like to be part of this.
• Members were keen to pull existing best practice into a common Health & Safety “things you must address” policy framework which all WFF members could use to benchmark their own H&S policies – particularly helpful where H&S consultants lack specialist knowledge of the stone industry.
• There was a lot of support for a Best Practice method statement on main contractor sites for how to approach onsite working (who does the first site visit, who moves materials around, and so on).
• A live issue for several members was the question of free displays for kitchen showrooms. The idea of model terms & conditions for showroom displays (emphasising retention of title and creating a common process of, for example, invoicing in advance) was well received. The idea being that those using the document could always choose to waive their rights with any customer they chose to. But if there is no clear contract in place, the fabricator risks ending up in acrimonious disputes if the showroom later decides to sell the display – or, come to that, the business.
• Discussion then extended to model T&Cs for all clients – one for consumers, who are covered by the Sales Of Goods Act and other consumer legislation; one for the kind of sub-contract / brokerage agreement with showroom customers, to cover issues such as who-is-responsible-for-what-and-how-far in the event of consultations, samples, call-backs and disputes; one for housebuilders and commercial contractor clients. Volunteers to get this rolling are again invited to contact Chris Pateman on administrator@worktopfabricators.org.

The next face-to-face meeting of WFF is on January 23 at Granite Tops UK in Preston, Lancashire. Any WFF members, or companies that would like to attend with a view to joining the WFF, should email Chris Pateman. If anyone has any items they are keen to be added to the agenda for the meeting, they too should be sent to Chris.

www.worktopfabricators.org

Compared with 2019, Builders Merchants sold 1.2% fewer products in August this year than they had in 2019, but such is the level of inflation that the income from those sales was 30% higher.

The figures come from the latest Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI), which tracks builders merchants’ actual sales using GfK’s Builders Merchant Point of Sale Tracking Data.

The report shows inflation is still climbing.

Compared with last year, the value of sales in August this year were up 10%, although the number of sales was down 4.2%, showing price inflation at 14.8% on the year.

Apart from timber & joinery, which was down 5.7%, every category saw the value of sales increase. The greatest increases came from Renewables & Water Saving (+27.3%) and Kitchens & Bathrooms (+26.9%). 

Compared with August 2019, Timber & Joinery Products led the value growth (+39.9%). Landscaping was next (+35.8%) and Kitchens & Bathrooms third (+30.5%). The value of Heavy Building Materials was up 29.6%, Plumbing while Heating & Electrical sales were up 18.2%.

Download the full BMBI report here.

As part of the Love Our Colleges campaign of the Association of Colleges (AoC) and Colleges Week 2022 (17-21 October), stonemasons from Moulton College were invited to attend a parliamentary reception to highlight the work of further education colleges in bridging skills gaps.

The event was held at the House of Lords and was attended by more than 30 MPs and Peers, including Skills Minister Andrea Jenkyns and Labour’s Shadow Skills Minister, Toby Perkins, as well as key representatives from the Department for Education.

Corrie Harris, Principal & CEO of Moulton College in Northamptonshire, attended the reception accompanied by two of the college’s stonemasonry students, Louise Regan and Lucy Newlyn, who exhibited examples of their work.

Corrie said: "We were honoured to be one of two colleges selected by the AoC to bring students to the reception and demonstrate this essential heritage skill that is so important to preserving our historical buildings. Louise and Lucy (the students) both spoke passionately about their course and the college and were rightly proud of the work that they were exhibiting."

Student Louise Regan said: "We wanted to showcase as much of our work as possible but it was a bit of a logistical challenge to safely transport over 100 kilos of stonemasonry. It was definitely worth the effort, though, as we spoke to many of the attendees, who were really interested in the pieces and the work experience that we had completed at Exeter Cathedral."

Students can study Level 2 and Level 3 Stonemasonry at Moulton College with bursaries and financial support available to help with course fees and costs for eligible students.

Bored with marble-look ceramics?

One of the most appealing aspects of writing about the ceramic tile sector is that it is just so progressive.

Ceramic tile design never stands still and every few years a new technology emerges that delivers a step change.

Over the past three decades I have seen single firing, rotary decoration, and reactive glazes all make their mark.

But it is two relatively new technologies that are currently driving the market – continuous pressing and digital non-impact print decoration. These are the technologies that have produced large format marble-look porcelains for the worktop market.

The ability to create flat, porcelain panels up to 3,600mm by 1,800mm and then decorate them edge-to-edge with any photographic or digital image provides enormous potential (if missing the holy grail of full thickness decoration).

At this year’s Cersaie exhibition in Bologna, Italy, in September, it was not hard to spot where these two technologies have now taken tile design. No doubt there will also be more examples at the Hard Surfaces exhibition co-locating with the Natural Stone Show in ExCeL London 6-8 June next year.

Judging by what was being shown this year, continuous pressing with digital decoration would seem to have but one logical design destination: wallpaper. Or, more accurately, wallporcelain.

It was everywhere. And in formats from 1,000mm by 3,000mm upwards it was impossible to miss.

What really impressed me this year was how these magnificent wallpaper-effects were offered in such a diversity of themes and patterns.

In recent years, tropical foliage, especially representations of Monstera Delicosa (better known as the Swiss Cheese Plant) have dominated, alongside other bold floral designs and some classic wallpaper themes like flock and Regency stripes… you know the sort of thing.

But not in 2022. This year the watchword is ‘variety’.

There were still tropical plants aplenty but the tile designers have been busy, playing with colours and patterns.

Naturalistic greens on the plants have been replaced by blues or greys; leaves have been isolated and formed into repeat patterns in a move away from branches and stems.

There were plenty of small, feminine floral patterns, more Laura Ashley than tropical rainforest. Some were quintessentially European in character. Others referenced traditional Japanese themes – cherry blossom and delicate Japanese maples. 

There were intricate designs like an Esher drawing, sophisticated Islamic geometric patterns, colour and line combinations that brought to mind Piet Mondrian, as well as stripes and other fabric echoes.

The variety was staggering. Graffiti art, bold geometrics, woven fabrics, origami… the design influences were rich, varied and wide-ranging, with roses and peonies sitting alongside spring meadows and autumn prairies. My particular favourite was the giant jellyfish at the top of this page.

The makers displaying these wallpaper effects came from across the globe – ABK, Cerdomus, Recer, Atlas Concorde, the Iris Group in Italy; Aparici and Pamesa in Spain; Tubadzin and Cerrad in Poland… the trend is universal.

Suggested applications ranged from hotel receptions and foyers to corporate HQs, bars and restaurants.

On the domestic front, they were shown in living rooms, as feature walls in bathrooms and kitchens, as a dramatic element in inside-out schemes, and in bedrooms, where tiled headboards and feature walls are an emerging trend.

The quality of the printing has to be seen to be believed.

And the most exciting thing is that this really is a blank sheet of paper. There are no limits. The pattern can be anything you can photograph, draw or create on graphic software.

The surfaces can be matt, satin or gloss (versions of which are given trade names by the manufacturers) or any combination of the three.

Patterns can be on single tiles or across two, four... any number. Neolith, for instance, has produced the tiles for a project where the picture came from a watercolour sketch by the architect. Each tile is unique and they are assembled on-site like a giant mosaic. Not cheap. But, with today’s technology, not unaffordable either.

It's tile, Jim, but not as we know it!

The collapse of a second multi-storey marble coffin niche structure at a cemetery in Italy has raised questions about the construction and maintenance of the structures.

Coffins containing human remains were left hanging in the air after the collapse in the Poggioreale cemetery in Naples. The collapse happened on Monday (17 October) in the afternoon.

Fortunately, the cemetery had been closed for the day and no-one was hurt. The cemetery remained closed on Tuesday, 18 October, to allow for the collapse to be dealt with.

The story appeared on the website of The Guardian newspaper, where it was reported that this was the second such incident at the cemetery this year.

Authorities sealed off the Poggioreale cemetery – the largest in Naples – as an investigation into the collapse of the marble building, called 'The Resurrection', got under way.

The Guardian quoted Vincenzo Santagada, a Naples councillor with responsibility for cemeteries, as saying: “The collapse was preceded by a bang and a dense cloud of dust. As an administration we are taking care of all the necessary formalities.”

In January some 300 burial niches were destroyed when another marble structure in another part of the same cemetery in southern Italy collapsed.

Families of the dead held a protest on Tuesday.

Politicians in Campania, the region of southern Italy of which Naples is the capital, say the city’s cemeteries have not been looked after for years. Francesco Emilio Borelli, a regional councillor for the Green Europe party, wrote on Facebook: “This is a critical and unacceptable situation. For too many years cemeteries in Naples have been badly managed and left to fend for themselves, falling prey to swindlers and profiteers.”

In February last year 200 coffins fell into the sea in Camogli in northern Italy after parts of a cemetery collapsed in a landslide that also caused two chapels to collapse.