Stoke Rochford Hall
Stoke Rochford Hall is a superb Victorian country mansion designed by the famous Scottish architect William Burn, and built in the early 1840s for a local wealthy landowner, Sir Christopher Turnor. The style of the building is Jacobean with many gables, multiple chimneys and finial-capped turrets. Many of the original features have been retained in and around the impressive Grand Hall and surrounding function rooms which include a magnificent Conservatory leading onto garden terraces.
In January 2005, the hall was engulfed by a serious fire which sadly destroyed the main body of the building as the roof and top floors caved in. Most of the interior of the south side of the building was destroyed.
Croft was appointed for the contract to carry out the rebuilding and remedial works to the external envelope of the building. This £2.5 million scheme comprised extensive stone masonry and brickwork, and the construction of new steel and timber pitched and flat roofs with slate, lead and asphalt coverings.
Valued in excess of £1million, Croft's stone masonry package is thought to be the largest of its kind in recent years. Replacement stonework included elaborate chimneys having carved twisted shafts with rope pattern and decorative cappings, finials, parapet balustrades, dormers, cornices and windows. For it's work at Stoke Rochford Hall, Croft was 'Highly Commended' in the prestigious Repair and Restoration category at the Stone Federation GB Natural Stone Awards. Extensive stonework repairs were also successfully carried out.
New roof coverings comprised around 1000 square metres of Westmoreland natural slates fixed in diminishing courses on roofs of differing pitches including the associated detailing at ridges, open and mitred valleys etc, and over 500 square metres of lead laid in bays, with associated gutters and sumps. Croft also repaired and replaced lead rainwater pipes and replaced ornate lead hopper heads.
Croft has also undertaken internal refurbishment works including replacement floors and partitions and alterations to structural openings.