Almost There
We have come a long way since our last newsletter in Spring. By the time you read this the building contractors will have virtually finished their work of restoration of the Rotunda.
The completed building is of a very high standard and we are delighted with it. The importance of the building was underlined by the decision of HRH the Prince of Wales to honour us by coming to Scarborough to lay the final stone. This he unveiled with great gusto!
The landscaping is well under way and will be completed by early in the New Year. Fitting out of the Museum and installation of the contents will be completed by Easter and after a few weeks of “soft opening” we are confident that we will open to the public with a major celebration in May.
We are now engaged on the final stage of our fund-raising for the Rotunda. To match the public sector contributions we need to raise at least £1.6 million from the private sector and we are now within £233,000 of our target. We hope that our readers will help us achieve this and we also plan a number of fund-raising events in the coming months.
Management of the Rotunda, the Art Gallery and Scarborough Collections Centre at Wood End passes to the Trust on January 1st and our Chief Executive Shirley Collier and the Museums and Gallery Team (not to mention our lawyers and accountants!) are hard at work preparing for the transfer.
Our next newsletter will find us up and running!
Lord Derwent - 29/11/2007
Rotunda Sponsors Donate Rock From North Sea Floor
Rotunda sponsors Shell have donated a section of rock drilled from 1000s metres below the floor of the North Sea.
The 2 metre long section of core comes from the Brent oil field and will go on display in Shell Geology Now. This tiny slice of the earth’s crust graphically shows how the presence of oil stains the rock dark brown. The core will form an integral part of an interactive allowing visitors to explore hydrocarbons for themselves; this is currently being developed between Shell, museum designers Event Communications Ltd, software developers Centre Screen and Museum & Gallery staff in Scarborough.
The core section also shows geological features that will link it to another display all about Dinosaur footprints.
“How?” you might ask? “Well, the reservoir rocks that contain the oil are in fact the same age as the rocks that we find on the coast containing dinosaur footprints".
Shirlie Stone - 28/11/2007
A Restoration of the Shifting Sands
The shifting sands of time are playing a very big part in the complex restoration project currently underway at the Rotunda.
The 13 month programme of works is being delivered by building conservation experts William Anelay Ltd whose knowledge of restoration has been brought to bear on the eye-catching 52 foot high landmark. William Anelay, based in York and Manchester, has a highly impressive pedigree that stretches back 260 years. Many of our nation’s landmark properties and monuments have benefited from Anelay’s comprehensive array of skills that have been passed down through the ages.
Work started last September on a £1.7 million restorative process for Scarborough Borough Council and Scarborough Museums Trust (SMT) that involves essential stonemasonry repairs, lead contracting on the heavily exposed domed roof, the demolition of internal walls and the building of an extension to the front of the property.
The project is part of an overall £4.9 million restoration programme funded with £1.983 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £506,000 from ERDF and private donations and sponsorship from a range of both companies and private individuals. Additional works will involve landscaping and the interior museum fit out.
Chris Bourne of Scarborough Council commented: “The Rotunda is a very significant landmark in the town and reflects the intriguing geology that exists within the area. It was entirely apt that William Smith opted to site the building here and we therefore have a responsibility to preserve this fascinating building for years to come.”
Project Manager Tony Heudebourck of Turner & Townsend said: “The restoration of the Rotunda has provided a number of significant challenges; A key challenge was to find a suitable contractor that could bring the skills needed for a complex restoration project of this kind. We are very aware of the need to preserve the architectural integrity of the building and felt that William Anelay’s unrivalled experience on similar projects provided the best fit.”
On the new extension, Blaxton Plain stone was used and on the main building, Blaxton Flowered stone was used for repairs. On the Rotunda's domed roof, copings were removed which form the cornice of the oculus so that an internal gutter could be laid. Glazing panels were replaced and timber rolls were laid. Code 8 lead wasused for the replacement cornice and code 7 for the dome itself.
A spiral staircase has also been removed and is in the process of being replaced with a lift and a new staircase that climbs up around the new lift shaft drum. Initial groundworks for the lift shaft revealed that the Rotunda sits on running sand and forms part of an old river bed that originally ran into the South Bay. A nearby underground car park, which served as an aquarium in times gone by, has also impacted on the nature of the job.
Site Manager Michael Feather, responsible for up to 20 staff on the project at any one time, took up the story: “We dug 2.9 metres down below the existing surface level and came across the moving sand which was a big surprise. There were no records to consult and so, like many restoration projects we often find obstacles in our way!”
To overcome this problem, the designs of the Rotunda base and lift shaft had to be changed. A drum ‘mould’, reinforced with horizontal and vertical steel bars, was lined with concrete to provide the base of the lift shaft. The lift shaft base was then suspended from reinforced steel bars fixed from anchor points in the Rotunda’s base whilst the new concrete floor was produced. This gives the sunken lift shaft floor stability and strength and prevents the shifting sands underneath affecting the Museum’s structure.
Other obstacles have included dry rot within the ornately designed roof and a number of jobs added on that have corrected past mistakes.
“It’s not uncommon,” added Michael “to be asked to rectify earlier attempts at restoration. This is a fantastic building and a wonderful location in which to be working but a major challenge nonetheless. The lack of space around the site has presented a number of logistical issues. We frequently have to juggle around supplies and delivery times to make the best use of the small area we have available.”
“It’s also important to remember that modern construction methods don’t tend to account for round structures! We don’t tend to think in terms of anything other than straight lines and processes such as the scaffolding have had to be adapted to suit the environment,” added Michael.
William Anelay is also currently in the process of restoring Victoria Baths in Manchester, winner of the BBC’s first Restoration programme and has recently completed work to another of Manchester’s landmarks in Gorton Monastery. Their links with the town of Scarborough go back a long way and their influence has been brought to bear on a number of the town’s landmarks. Anelay’s Managing Director Vernon Carter is justifiably proud of his firm’s involvement with preserving Scarborough’s rich architectural legacy.
“There are so many features in Scarborough that make it a wonderful location and clearly a big draw for millions of holidaymakers. A big part of that is the architecture and it’s a great feeling to be involved in projects such as the Rotunda.
“They represent real milestones for William Anelay as they encompass all of our traditional skills as well as our ability to overcome even the most demanding of problems,” added Vernon.
The stonemasonry work has also drawn on an international skill base with a number of French craftsmen involved in the process as part of a well established work exchange programme.
Scarborough’s Rotunda Museum, the jewel in the crown of Britain’s geological heritage, will now be around to educate and inform for decades to come thanks to a wide range of skills from a bygone era.
Shirlie Stone - 27/11/2007
The Visit of HRH The Prince of Wales
When asked to think of a present for Prince Charles, I immediately thought that a piece of local limestone containing ammonites would be the best solution. Ammonites are common on our coast and aesthetically very pleasing, but most importantly they are linked with William Smith and his successors.
When Smith discovered that rocks could be correlated by the fossils they contained, one of the fossil groups that he relied on was the ammonites. And later workers soon realised that ammonites provided a particularly accurate means of correlation. Ammonites are a group of extinct invertebrates that belonged to the cephalopods – which include the modern Nautilus, squid and cuttlefish. They lived from earliest Jurassic to latest Cretaceous times, from about 200 to 65 million years ago. The reason why they provide such an accurate means of correlation is because they evolved so quickly – many species lasted for only 250 to 500 thousand years. So if we can determine the sequence of species through time, we can correlate the rocks that they occur in to that degree of accuracy, which on a geological timescale is very accurate!
Our gift was collected from the Holderness coast, where it had been washed out of the glacial tills that form the cliffs there. But the glacier that deposited the tills had probably picked the block up from the sea floor in Robin Hood’s Bay, where a thin bed of limestone with exactly the same ammonites crops out just below low water level.
William Smith’s other huge contribution to geology was the concept of a geological map. His pioneer map of the geology of England and Wales formed the theme of a best-selling book by Simon Winchester, The Map that Changed the World. We were delighted that Simon could join us to present a special leather-bound copy to the Prince as a fitting complement to the Trust’s gift.
Professor Peter Rawson - 26/11/2007
