Archive Post 1: The University Church of St. Mary, Oxford.

So here's the first of the archive posts that'll be going live every Friday at 17.00 GMT for the next two months!

St. Mary's is Oxford University's church right in the centre of the historic city. In 2012 the church underwent a huge internal and external conservation project. The interior was conserved by a team from Cliveden Conservation of which I was a part for the last three months of the project running up to Christmas 2012.

The birdcage scaffold in the nave.

I worked in the stone section of the team in the nave of the church and the work was very diverse. I worked on cleaning stone, lime washing, plaster repairs, mortar repairs, steam cleaning of monuments, toning in on monuments, floor repairs and many other processes over the winter.

The Nicholas Stone porch after conservation.

I was also lucky enough to work with a colleague on the beautiful Baroque porch designed by Nicholas Stone, Charles I's Master Mason. Over a few weeks we cleaned the porch, re-pointed where necessary and used a pigmented lime wash to bring the entire porch together visually.  

The bell's being returned to the church near the end of the project. 

The project was a wonderful experience and gave me a great deal of practice in the field of stone conservation. 

In next Friday's blog post I'll share some photos of my work at the Ashmolean in January 2013.