Colchester Castle, Essex
Colchester Castle, Essex
We acted as engineers to help determine essential works required for this Grade I listed castle and Scheduled Monument.
Colchester Castle is a Norman Castle and is currently a museum, exhibiting local history collection. The surrounding fields became a municipal park in the late nineteenth century, after which the Castle passed into public ownership in the early twentieth century. The Castle is built over the podium of a large Roman Temple that was most likely built in the reign of the Emperor Claudius (AD 41 - 54).
Over the following centuries, the building was raised to three levels high (as opposed to four, such as at the Tower of London). The royal Castle passed to a series of nobles and officials, until it was eventually bought by the Borough of Colchester. In 1930s, the roof of the castle was infilled to allow for the expansion of a museum that had been housed within the castle from 1860.
Working with PRS Architects, we established the immediate issues that threatened the long-term use of the Castle: severe rainwater ingress; deterioration of the primary fabric of the building; and large pieces of masonry falling into the surrounding public park (which had already resulted in the installation of temporary protective barriers around the museum).
We set out a series of proposals for: masonry repair; the consolidation to wall tops and high-level masonry on the north, east and west elevations; the overlay and refurbishment of defective detailing and part failure of an existing roof covering; the re-laying of selected areas of the existing roof to correct falls; the removal of existing scaffolding and timber perimeter walkways; the installation of a new balustrades to replace existing scaffold tube balustrading; and the remodelling of perimeter guttering around the lantern.
Client: Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service (CIMS)
Architect: PRS Architects