Mount Stewart Chapel

David, Project Joiner at Mount Stewart House, County Down, provides us with an update of work at the private chapel of the Marquesses of Londonderry in the mansion house:-

"Things are moving on now at an ever increasing pace; the phase ‘getting ready’ is almost complete.

I can say a lot of head scratching has been done because of the structural problems we have uncovered. However, during this stage while opening up floors we made some very interesting discoveries.

The newspaper mentioned in a previous blog post gave us dates; whilst the bones of the different animals found in the same room gave us an insight to the culinary tastes of workmen in 1912!

The bones when analysed where found to be from different animals including sheep, geese, rabbit and chicken.

At the moment we, the project joinery team, are in the chapel erecting three floors of stud-work.

The work being carried out by us in the chapel is to provide an area in which the project conservator can store items such as furniture, curtains and carpets from the various rooms while the work is carried out in them.

The chapel has been stripped back and all furnishings removed.

All the rooms in the house are full with furniture and family memorabilia, all of which are very important to the property and need very careful storing and maintenance.

Unfortunately for the project conservator, this makes her life here in Mount Stewart that little bit more complicated.

We have been working steadily and progress has been coming on well. Although we all (and I personally), miss our project apprentice joiner Callum while he is away on his trip to China.

As you would be aware the Chapel is out of bounds to the public for sensible health and safety reasons while the construction work is under way.

I have included a few photos of the building work so you can see what is happening. Also the whole building works has been filmed using a time lapse camera and I for one can’t wait to see the footage!"