A MAJOR conservation project at Carlisle Castle has kept the building dry and save it for future generations.
English Heritage began the project at the 900-year-old castle in 2022. It aimed to address issues with water damage within its keep, both at the ground and roof level.
Specialist workers were called in to repair parts of the roof and some masonry, ensuring that the drainage at the ground level was improved and the upper levels were repointed with a lime-based mortar.
Since the work’s completion in 2022, Carlisle Castle cluster manager for English Heritage, Juliet Fellows-Smith, has been taking moisture readings every fortnight to confirm the work’s effectiveness.
An English Heritage spokesperson said: “We are pleased to say that of this week, the project has worked and Carlisle Castle remains dry and saved for future generations.”
Ms Fellows-Smith said of the work: “One of the things which causes the most damage is water.
“When water gets into a historic stone structure, it expands and contracts.
“It causes a huge amount of damage, causing the stone to crumble away.
“Our works at Carlisle Castle were all about preventing the ingress of water into the keep, which is 900 years old and has seen all sorts of kings and queens of England and Scotland.
“Our work was about roofing. Roof works, roof repairs, masonry repairs, repointing the top part of the castle and replacing the cement mortar, which is very hard.
“Water doesn't pass through that, it instead passes through the stone.
“With lime-based mortar, the water can pass through that and not through the stone.
“As well as preventing water from getting into the castle, we need to allow it to get back out because when it gets trapped that's when it causes so much damage.
“We did work to repair the system of drainage underneath the castle, so water is being taken away in the right way to prevent damage to the monument.”
Within the keep, workers carefully conserved stonework to ensure the 15th-century prisoner carvings are safe for future generations.
“No one knows who made them, and no one knows why, but the imagery contains lots of heraldic imagery associated with some of the most powerful families in the north of England at that time, such as the Dacres and the Percy families.
“The carvings are very beautiful but there are some images we know what they mean. For example, the symbol of the boar, the personal symbol of Richard III.
“But there’s mysterious imagery where we don’t know what people intended, there’s mermaids, scenes of violence, it’s kind of open to interpretation which makes it so interesting," she said.
Ms Fellows-Smith said the work was very complex, but much of its complexity wasn’t known until it was taken apart by expert workers.
Further work with ecologists ensured that underground bat populations were undisturbed as much as possible during the extensive drainage work.
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She explained more about the importance of the work: “For Carlisle Castle in particular, it’s worthwhile spending this money because each stone has so much information about our history.
“The whole monument is covered in graffiti from the last 900 years, and there is all sorts of evidence of the events that have gone on here.”
She added: “This was a big project for me, and I’m honoured to have played a part.
“I grew up in Hexham and came to Carlisle Castle on school trips, I’ve always loved it.
“Working on these monuments is what we love to do we are continuously working on them.
“These works are a big milestone in the lives of people who look after these castles.
“People will remember that for a long time, the castle was covered in scaffolding – it plays an important role in lots of people’s lives, and certainly, this project has played a big role in my life."
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