Restoration Projects
Stowe House School
Linford Joinery restored four pairs of Grade I-listed decorative wooden doors for Stowe House School Marble Saloon, each standing approximately four metres high.
The doors had run the gauntlet of some fairly low-grade repairs over the years, all of which had to be stripped away, leaving just the bare wood and original carved decoration
All the ironmongery, including door handles and bolts, was carefully removed and sent to specialists for repair.
Meanwhile our craftsmen set to work repairing the woodwork, including the intricate carved patrae and panel decoration, with an acanthus leaf and bead detail moulding.
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C18th Molineux Hotel Staircase
The Grade II-listed Molineux Hotel, parts of which date back to the 1720s, has been vacant since 1979. In 2003, it suffered an attack at the hands of arsonists which caused extensive damage.
Wolverhampton City Council acquired the building the following year and a painstaking five-year restoration project has just finished, returning the building to its former glory.
Linford Joinery was commissioned to recreate the hotel’s massive oak staircase, incorporating as many of the original elements as possible, which included the handrail and twisted newel posts.
Some of these original pieces and panelling had been stored for protection by Linford in our workshops for the past 15 years, following work we had done at the hotel in the 1990s. Then, our team had been called in to survey and repair the interior after water ingress from the roof had caused internal extensive damage.
Unfortunately, however, no drawings or images remained of the original design or position of the staircase, but personal recollections of the 15-year-old survey, the debris on site, and the pieces held in storage, helped our craftsmen to build up a good image of what it had looked like.
Unlike the original, which would have been constructed on-site, Linford manufactured the entire staircase off-site in our workshops, and assembled all the elements on-site.
Last year, the Molineux Hotel project was acknowledged by English Heritage, the government’s adviser on the historic environment, as one of the 20 best conservation-led regeneration projects in the country.
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