The Dovecote at Chillington Hall forms the centrepiece of a courtyard of red brick  agricultural buildings, consisting of stables, barns, smithy, malt oven and carriage store. Built c1730, the dovecote once housed over 1000 doves and provided meat, eggs, feathers and dung for fertiliser and possibly gunpowder.

In spite of ‘first-aid’ roof repairs carried out over the years, these ranges eventually reached the stage where they were included on English Heritage’s Register of Buildings at Risk. However, thanks to funding received through Natural England’s agri-environment schemes, a significant recovery in the life of these buildings has begun.

External repairs to the stable range began in 2007, leading to the most recent and significant work to reinstate the dovecote roof and cupola, missing for over 15 years and assisted under Natural England’s Higher Level Stewardship Scheme (HLS).

The main focus of the grant is to ensure that these unique buildings are not lost, but instead are brought back to life and maintained for future generations so they can be understood in the context of their wider surroundings. At present Natural England, through HLS, help fund Chillington Estate to arrange for regular school visits and further plans are underway to provide an educational facility within the west range.
 

Project Description

The Dovecote is placed centrally within the courtyard and sits between an acorn roasting house, pig sties, animal shed and earth closets, added in the mid 19th century.

The fine quality of the dovecote brickwork is consistent with the construction of the south wing of Chillington Hall, which was built by the architect Frances Smith of Warwick. Some 15 years ago, the dovecote roof structure was in such a poor and dangerous condition that it was brought down and eventually lost and replaced with a lightweight temporary roof.

The previous architect to Chillington Hall, George Sidebotham of Twentyman Percy & Partners, (known in the West Midlands for their 20th century church designs); carried out a survey of the dovecote roof and cupola while it was still in place. These record drawings enabled the present architects,

Horsley Huber Architects Ltd, to assemble working drawings for the reconstruction of the roof. Miller Heritage (formerly RS Miller Roofing) won the contract for the Central Range repairs and work to the dovecote continued as part of this project. Millers are a Midlands contractor who have gained recognition on many local church repair projects including the English Heritage grant aided repairs to St. Andrew’s Church, Shifnal, as well as to Soane’s East Range of Chillington Hall.
 

The Project Team outside the finished Dovecote

Given the high standard of workmanship required and the unique nature of this project, it was important that highly skilled craftsmen were involved with the re-construction. Following his finely crafted joinery repairs to the Soane Lantern (Sotheby’s and Historic Houses Association 2009 project award), joiner Adrian Evans was nominated subcontractor to carry out the task of constructing the dovecote cupola, windows and dome.

Nothing remained of the original structure apart from seven of the eight sash windows and one round window but these were beyond repair. Nevertheless, they were used as a reference for the construction of the new windows. The existing Dovecote windows were in painted softwood but the final structure is of seasoned oak heartwood to all the exposed areas and tanalised softwood to the inner roof structure. The oak will be left

to season and harden naturally with no further treatment.

Over the years, ivy had grown between walls where it was difficult to reach. The first stage of work began on the lower brick and stone plinth, where roots had damaged the internal brick bird boxes. Stonemasons,

Walker & Sons, carried out both lower and upper repairs, replacing ferrous cramps and rebedding the stone cornice and bricks at eaves level.  In summer 2009, the construction of the cupola, dome and windows began in Adrian Evans’ workshop, by first assembling a mock-up of two sides of the octagonal cupola, around one of the original windows.

From this, a template of the octagon plan was made, to ensure co-ordination between site and workshop. The scaffolding was erected early in 2010 to inspect the condition of the existing oak cross beams, the only timber remaining from the original structure. These had suffered badly from years of decay and weathering but it was considered important that these beams should be retained. These were carefully repaired by the joiner, laminating layers of kiln-dried oak into the defective parts of the beams, a technique developed and demonstrated on St. Michael’s Church, Brimfield, by the experienced conservation architect John Wheatley and presented as a research topic at the Spring meeting 2010 of the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyor’s Association.

As work drew to completion in the workshop and the beams were repaired, Miller Heritage transported the mid-section timber core to site and fixed the lower central post and steel supports fabricated by H&R Development.

A month later the cupola, windows and cap were transported to site and craned safely on to the new roof where it was bolted to the lower structure. Finally, the lead was applied by Alan Dalloway of Whitehouse Contractors Ltd, who had also carried out the leadwork to the Soane Lantern.

A painting of the original dovecote hangs on the wall of Chillington Hall’s Saloon, depicting a weather vane and finial. Although estate workers recall seeing the remains of this weathervane it has not been found. Nevertheless, a finial incorporating a lighting conductor will be fitted which will accommodate the weather vane if ever this turns up in future.

Much of the success of this project work is down to the skill and experience of the craftsmen and the care and pride taken in repairing various buildings on the estate. There is a sense of continuity at Chillington Hall where some craftsmen have worked for many years, each making a unique contribution to ensure the buildings will be used and enjoyed well into the future.