Castle fortified to face future

Aug 20 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

THE castle which gave Newcastle its name has been re-fortified to face whatever the next 50 years can throw at it.

Two years of repair and consolidation work on the Castle Keep are now almost complete.

Loose stone has been gently scrubbed away to remove any danger of falling material and with it has gone the soot and pollution of decades.

Where necessary, stones have been repaired and around 200 replaced entirely.

“We have inspected every stone – thousands of them,” said Robin Dower, partner in the architectural practice of Spence and Dower, based at Cambo in Northumberland and which has been overseeing the work.

“The Castle Keep is one of the finest examples of a Norman Keep in the North of England. It’s also a scheduled monument, so it was vital that any work that could affect the fabric or the appearance of the building was done with the greatest sensitivity.”

Specialist conservation consulting contractor St Astier, which has offices in Seaham in County Durham and Newcastle, has been carrying out the work on the castle.

“Logistically it has been a very difficult site but it has also been a very rewarding and interesting project,” said associate director Jim Croft.

“The castle is obviously a very large structure. It’s quite a monster.”

Problems have included how to put up 28-metre high scaffolding on what is a scheduled ancient monument.

On the side of the castle adjacent to the main railway line, the track had to be closed from midnight to 7am on 12 Sundays to allow scaffolding to be erected.

Mr Dower said: “One of the reasons for the work has been the issue of public safety because of the danger of chunks of stone dropping off.

“There were also the dangers of the structural stability of the castle from perished stone and the potential loss of architectural features.”

Repairs and replacements were carried out using tooled stone from Blaxter sandstone quarry near Elsdon in Northumberland, to closely match existing stonework, dating back to the 12th Century.

This contrasts with smooth-faced stone used in repair work in the 1970s. “This is not now considered to be good conservation practice and is not how the castle would have looked in the past,” said Mr Croft.

The castle’s brush-up has revealed the original colour and texture of the stone, and has shown that the fortress has worn well over the centuries.

“The level of decay was much less than we thought it would be,” said Mr Croft.