The Morton Partnership were appointed as Lead Consultant for the repairs at the Elizabethan wing at Creeksea Place, Essex, which were funded by a generous Historic England grant.

The Morton Partnership initially carried out a structural assessment, providing detailed advice to aid the Conservation Architect on the emergency works to stabilise the structure and help reduce the likelihood of collapse.

The conservation works comprised re-roofing, structural repairs to a number of timber beams at first-floor level, and locally re-building some of the chimney stacks. Raking out the cementitious mortar and repointing the external brickwork was done using a lime-based mix carefully replicating the original mix, based on results obtained through historic mortar analysis. All the repairs were carried out in line with the latest conservation principles.

As the impressive Elizabethan Manor House and its historic gardens are currently used as a wedding venue, the repairs to the earliest wing of the building were not only meant to salvage this architectural gem, but also to make it structurally safe, allowing the owners to open it for public events throughout the year, in the attempt to bring it back to its former glory.

Funder: Historic England
Contractor: Universal Stone Ltd
Architect: Chris Betts Architecture
Quantity Surveyor: Sawyer Fisher Ltd