Project record · Church restoration
A parish church needed to reinstate a finial that had fallen from the east tower during a storm. One surviving finial on the west tower gave us the pattern. Silicone bench mould, matched lime concrete casting.
The brief
A parish church had lost a finial from the east tower during a storm. The finial had shattered on impact and wasn't recoverable. The west tower still carried its matching original. The parish's specifying architect asked whether we could reproduce the finial from the survivor and, in view of the church's age and material, cast it in matched lime concrete rather than ordinary cast stone.
The problem
The surviving finial was 24 metres up on the west tower. Scaffold access was possible but expensive; the parish's budget was limited and heritage grant funding needed to stretch across the whole reinstatement.
In-situ silicone moulding at that height was the wrong economics for a single finial. The alternative — carefully removing the surviving finial, moulding it on the bench, and reinstating it — needed the conservation officer's approval and had to be done without damage.
How we solved it
Conservation officer visited site with the specifying architect. Agreed the survivor could be carefully removed for bench moulding, provided the removal and reinstatement were carried out by qualified stonemasons and documented.
Stonemasons removed the survivor and delivered it to our workshop. Silicone bench mould with a rigid mother mould. Splice on the underside where it sits into the tower — invisible in place.
Two reproductions cast in matched lime concrete (one for immediate installation, one as spare). Slower cure than cement-based concrete; different handling regime for the yard team, briefed accordingly.
Original returned to the west tower and reinstalled. New reproduction installed on the east tower. Second reproduction retained on the church's storage against future need.
The outcome
Both towers now carry finials — the survivor back in place on the west, a matched reproduction on the east. The spare sits in the parish's storage. Total cost to the parish was well within the heritage grant budget, largely because the moulding was done on the bench rather than in situ.
Lessons
For genuinely inaccessible originals, sometimes the cheapest route is the one that seems most heroic — carefully removing the original for bench work, then reinstating it. Always with the conservation team's involvement, but often more affordable than the scaffold-and-in-situ alternative.
At a glance
How a two-part mould fits together
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