Refurbishment restores Nottingham Castle Rock to its former glory

Nottingham Castle Rock is an ancient monument surrounding several areas of the world-famous Nottingham Castle. Originally constructed in 1068, time has seen the structure and its encompassing roads, caves and tunnels, be subject to ruin and deterioration.

As part of a major £30m refurbishment project, Central High Rise Limited were contacted by Nottingham City Council to undertake a fully comprehensive inspection to report on the findings. The purpose of this was to determine if there were any repairs required to ensure the safety of the public and help to restore the premises to its former glory.

Central High Rise Limited first started work for Nottingham Castle in 1997, since then they have carried out a variety of specialist inspection surveys and repairs over various areas on the castle and its grounds. This has seen their working relationship develop and go from strength to strength, through their reliability, workmanship and the care and respect they have shown for this rich heritage location.

The company's sales manager Laura Lee takes up the story: "The project was managed from start to finish by one of our technical surveyors who was assigned the enquiry. following the initial contact by the client. A site survey was undertaken and this included, but was not limited to, the recording of all assets, structure construction details and dimensions, access requirements and all site-specific hazards.

"For each area surveyed, a detailed assessment was performed to enable us to carefully catalogue the areas of concern and recommend the best course of action to remediate these. A specific report of recommendations was submitted to the client, using photographic evidence and proposals of industry recognised solutions, this assisted in making sure the client could have confidence in our abilities to carry out the project successfully.

"Due to the company's traditional Steeplejack routes the works could be undertaken utilising various industry approved access techniques, this included specialist access ladders and rope access techniques. The tasks undertaken at height involved loose rock and vegetation removal and the pointing of the degraded stonework and mortar joints over several boundary rock walls.

"Alongside the castle there are a series of interlinking caves, mostly constructed of sandstone, and with the varying weather conditions, fluctuations in temperature, rainfall seeping through the soil, freeze-thaw cycles between rocks and root growth, there will be a constant detrimental effect on the rock formation. Through a regimented and carefully programmed annual and six-monthly regime, we have assisted in delivering continual monitoring and highlighting any areas of health & safety concern.

"Derby Road Tunnel is a pedestrian entrance to the Park Estate situated around the perimeter of the castle and is formed into the soft Nottingham Castle sandstone, this has formed a stone wall boundary. With the rock being of a soft texture, this is subject to a number of failures, rapid erosion and invasion of roots. The vegetation, while it maintains the radiation of the site, also damages the rock as the roots anchor into the matrix of the stone. With thorough inspections of this area, and identifying points 'of corrosion and damage, our recommendations of maintenance and treatments were approved, allowing our teams of highly skilled and knowledgeable CSS Registered engineers to commence with the works.

"Due to our wide range of specialist access capabilities, this allowed the project to be undertaken with minimal disruption and also served to provide a cost saving solution for our client."

Testimonial from the client:

"Central High Rise Limited have been undertaking works from vegetation management, abseil safety inspections and removal of any dangerous rock or vegetation for over 20 years. I first dealt with Keith Turney and latterly lan Townsend who worked closely with myself, on behalf of Nottingham City Council. The works have involved a variety of techniques from rock pinning, cave support systems and fibre glassing to ensure that the Ancient Monument remains in good order.

"I would like to thank all at Central High rise for their work and dedication to the projects."

Senior Structural Engineer, Nottingham City Council

For further information visit www.centralhighrise.co.uk