Projects > Restoration of the Martyr's Memorial
Founded in 1927, the Trust celebrated its 75th Anniversary in 2002 by restoring the Martyr's Memorial at the end of St Giles. The following article, reproduced from the Trust's 2002 Annual Report, outlines the project and the background to it
The Preservation - of What?
In restoring an historical memorial we had to consider just what was to be preserved; the memory of the Martyrs themselves, of a turbulent period in our English ecclesiastical history? Or was it the gothic design of a leading 19th century architect, or preservation of the 19th century masonry and craftsmanship?
In fact, it was all of these things. It was important that inscriptions and attributes of the Martyrs should be recognisable. Scott’s design, too, needed to be respected; it should not be downgraded by erosion or by the disappearance of essential decorative elements. Lastly, the original masonry, and especially the artistic quality of the statues – where it survived – needed to be protected and preserved wherever possible.
Brief History
1555-56 saw three protestant bishops burned at the stake in Broad Street, Oxford, in the brief English reversion to Catholicism during the reign of Queen Mary. Although a gateway marking that event had been suggested in 1773 by Edward Tatham (later Rector of Lincoln College), by the 1830s Oxford was still without any memorial to the martyrs. In 1838, with the Oxford movement encouraging Anglo-Catholicism, anti-Tractarians called a meeting which agreed to recommend the erection of a memorial to Archbishop Cranmer and Bishops Latimer and Ridley as a “tribute of respect and veneration to self-denying Christian faith and constancy”.
A 29-strong Committee originally proposed the construction of a memorial church, a resolution supported by four archbishops (Canterbury, York, Armagh and Dublin), 16 bishops and numerous clergy, but there was no suitable site, so in March 1840 an architectural competition was launched for a Memorial Cross of the same sort as the ‘Eleanor’ crosses erected by Edward I, together with construction of the north aisle of St Mary Magdalen Church. The young George Gilbert Scott was one of seven architects who submitted designs and his was selected by the Committee. In May 1841 the foundation stone of the Memorial was laid, with work on it and the north aisle of St Mary’s proceeding by Mr Kirk, an ‘eminent builder from Sleaford, Lincolnshire’. Scott chose a magnesium limestone for the Memorial from a quarry (later known as the ‘Memorial Quarry’) near Mansfield Woodhouse. The statues were carved by Henry Weeks under the direction of Sir Francis Chantrey in Caen stone given by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury cathedral, a stone which Scott rightly regretted having used at the same time at his new church of St Giles, Camberwell. The north aisle of St Mary’s church was completed by May 1842 and the Memorial, probably also, at a cost of just over £9,000.
Past Repairs
Some sixty one years later, in 1903, the first public appeal was made for minor maintenance of the Memorial, carried out at a cost of £60. In 1949 further repairs were undertaken for which an appeal for £1,000 was launched. Again, in 1968, repairs were carried out by the City costing £1,250, of which £250 was contributed by the University. Whilst some of these repairs were of a high quality, using cuprous metal dowels, replacement pinnacle finials were in Clipsham stone, an oolitic limestone not matching the original magnesium limestone, and the statues were made up in a hard cement-based mortar, much of which had subsequently parted from the parent stone.
Surveys
In 1966 and again in 1967 the City Engineer, observing that the 1949 repairs had been carried out by public subscription funds raised by the vicar of St Mary Magdalen’s church, recommended that a detailed examination should be made of the structure. He noted that appeals for grant-aid from the Historic Buildings Council and “other bodies” had been turned down and that the church was no longer prepared to launch a public subscription. As recently, a temporary fence was erected around the Memorial and loose pieces of stone were removed, but there is no record of any detailed survey and repairs appear to have been minimal. In 1996 John Ashdown, the then City Conservation Officer, engaged stone consultant John Bysouth to inspect the Memorial. This was carried out from a mobile lift platform; vegetation, loose stones and sand left from water/sand blast cleaning in 1985 were removed. Not all the pinnacles were checked but another recommendation was made that a detailed examination and comprehensive schedule of repairs should be prepared.
John Bysouth’s advice was followed in 1999 when the City engaged historic buildings architects Donald Insall Associates to examine and report on the condition of the Memorial. A large mobile platform hoist was hired that allowed access to all parts, including the finial cross. The Report, produced in April 1999, recommended extensive repairs, including conservation of the statues, reconstruction of the perimeter steps and paving, and protection against pigeons. Photographic coverage included some of the illustrations accompanying this article.
Nick Worlledge became Oxford City Conservation Officer on the retirement of John Ashdown and began looking for funds. The Insall Report was updated in April 2001 and the Oxford Preservation Trust agreed to sponsor the repairs as their 75th Anniversary Project. Eventually, together with money from Oxford City Council, the Trust was successful in seeking funding from a number of local and national grant-making bodies, backed up by a successful public appeal.
Donald Insall Associates were retained by the Council to seek tenders based on a detailed schedule of work. Special provision was included for the work to be treated as an educative exemplar so that conservation students could study work in progress. At this point Oxford Preservation Trust appointed DPA lighting consultants to design discreet floodlighting and tenders were also sought for their proposals.
The tendering process resulted in Nimbus Conservation of Frome being appointed for the conservation and consolidation of the Memorial, with R T Harris as local electrical contractor for the floodlighting.
Work began in May 2002 with clearance of a large quantity of pigeon guano and gentle cleaning of the dirtiest parts of the Memorial. Sooty encrustations were physically eased away, and underlying deposits removed by brushing after softening by water from a nebulous spray rig. Loose and hollow cement mortar repairs were removed, but where the mortar was still tightly adhering it was left in place.
Part of the problem of earlier repairs was the differential thermal expansion of non-ferrous wire reinforcement in thin layers of mortar. This problem was exacerbated in the statues because – unlike the magnesium limestone – the Caen stone had not weathered well in the Oxford air and had continued to decay around and under hard layers of mortar. Although conservation of original craftsmanship always has high priority, in many parts of the statues no original surfaces survived. In order to maintain the identity of each statue, therefore, salient features – hands, a nose – that had earlier been built up in hard mortar now fallen away, were reinstated in a soft lime-based mortar anchored by several hundred ceramic ‘T’ pegs that have a co-efficient of thermal expansion much closer to stone and mortar than the earlier wire reinforcement. On completion of repairs the statues were given a thin lime-based ‘shelter coat’ to mask new and old work. To minimise future deterioration this shelter coat will need to be renewed periodically.
For the whole height of the Memorial, perished and missing mortar was replaced by well-packed ‘soft’ lime mortar, because mortar should always be less dense than the stone it separates. All pinnacles and their finials were checked for security. Split and missing finials were renewed in matching magnesium limestone, together with significant pieces of missing tracery.
Iron railings had originally surrounded the Memorial (at a cost in 1843 of £350), but these had long since been removed, leaving the bottom step – which was in York stone unlike the limestone remainder – cracked and broken. Other steps had shifted slightly and one was badly chipped. More recently the stone-edged border around the steps had been filled with concrete paving stones. Consolidation and repair of the steps and their surround was therefore a significant part of the work. The bottom step was entirely renewed in new York stone and others that had moved were re-bedded or anchored with long horizontal stainless steel dowels. Grout has been poured into cavities below the steps which were then re-pointed. The concrete slabs have been replaced by river cobbles and the opportunity taken to bury below them fibre-optic gear for the ground-level floodlights.
In the 1960’s some controversy surrounded the painting of the heraldic shields and religious symbols. Although it seems they may not have been coloured originally, great care has been taken in reinstating the correct heraldic colours.
Pigeons nesting on ledges and gutters had been the cause of much deterioration and have now been excluded by spikes and fine nylon netting.
Finally, on a bitterly cold but clear evening in January 2003, Colin Dexter graphically recalled the significance of the Martyrs’ Memorial in the Oxford scene and, turning on the floodlights, handed back the restored monument to the City and its people.
2003