About the Project

Refurbishment of grade I-listed library, completed in 91 weeks.

In this major refurbishment of a 17th-century library, Jonathan Brock didn’t just lead a project overflowing with painstaking craftsmanship that delivered drop-dead quality, he also embraced modern methods of construction that delivered buildability and budget.

With the library bookcases needing some intricately carved oak tracery replaced, Jon quickly realised there was not enough time in the tight programme for a carver to create the 44 lengths required. He turned to a pair of five-axis computer-controlled machines to robo-carve the pieces accurately enough for a human carver to do the expert finishing. It was a time and quality triumph.

As for the daunting task of propping a 400-year-old building without foundations while replacing the 28 columns that hold it up, Jon devised temporary concrete foundations with polystyrene supports under each arch along with scaffold poles to distribute the weight evenly across the foundations. He slashed the hefty prelim costs by running the works sequentially rather than concurrently.

Jon also insulated roofs, gold-leafed heraldic shields, installed hidden accessible lifts, and drilled through lengths of asbestos sandwiched between ancient oak beams and 1970s steel channelling to create a ceiling-level space for services. And he did it all on this extraordinary and extraordinarily demanding project while sharing access with users through a single stone doorway just one metre wide.