Tag Archives: restoration

Having a ball at Kings Weston

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Kings Weston has a habit of bringing people together, and when, by chance, we began talking to Peter Floyd, former head of the city design team at Bristol City Council, we realised he had close connections with the house. Peter has kindly written a reminiscence from 1970, a pivotal year for the mansion on becoming redundant for a second time since WWII, and, as it happened, his own life.   
Peter writes:

“I worked for Bristol City Council (BCC)Planning Department in 1970. As an architect/planner I was head of Design Section responsible for some architectural aspects of the  Planning, Engineering and Parks Departments. I was also a member of the Council of Bristol and Somerset Society of Architects (BSSA).
 
In the late 60’s public concern was growing about the risk of dereliction of both Ashton Court Mansion and also Kings Weston House. I had already organised a number of events for the BSSA and in 1970 chaired a group of members who decided to hold a Ball at BCC owned Ashton Court, to publicise its poor condition. Bristol City Council unexpectedly gave its permission and so we worked on the Ball organisation and design for 6 months, helped enthusiastically by artists Ann and Jerry Hicks. Our insurers then required assurance from BCC that the house was safe which was not forthcoming.  

Peter Floyd (left) and Charles Gregory carry in some of the artist-design decorations for the ball.


The state of the house was revealed to the public which was furious. BCC was astonished that anyone was interested – However, the Ball had lost its venue.”
 
 
With the Bristol Society of Architects turfed out of Ashton Court they urgently looked for alternative venues to host their Restoration Ball. It so happened that Kings Weston house was shortly to be vacated by Bath University and with an uncertain future, so the titular restoration might equally apply to Vanbrugh’s mansion. With the help of Professor Ken Panter Kings Weston was acquired for one night only.  Efforts were quickly refocussed on the new venue. The Evening Post reported on June 5th:   

 
“Guests at tonight’s masked ball at Kings Weston House will be greeted by a scene to suit just about every taste. Wildly abstract works art by students of architecture will be dotted among potted palms loaned by Bristol Corporation parks department. And musically the sounds will range from Avon Cities jazz to period music played by a consort of recorders on the magnificent staircase of the Vanbrugh mansion.
 
A team of helpers led by ball-committee chairman Mr Peter Floyd, and member of the City Planning Department, were scurrying about Kings Weston today getting everything ready for the 350 guests who are paying four guineas a head for the pleasure. Mr Martin Fisher has been up night after night with his team of electricians devising lighting effects which will be the star attraction. Fifty spotlights, 30 stage lights and some cube-shaped lanterns will be dotted around the house. And from the outside Kings Weston will be flood-lit, providing a spectacle for the drivers passing along the M5.Groups of helpers have devised different decorative schemes for the sitting-out rooms on the ground and first floor. One has been transformed into a leafy bower, filled with borrowed rhododendrons, ivy, and laburnum. Others have been draped in fabric to give a tent-like effect. Mr Floyd, organising the ball for the Bristol Society of Architects, tells me it’s been touch-and-go to prepare the mansion in the two months since the decision to cancel the Restoration Ball at Ashton Court.  “but we’ll be alright on the night,” he said.

Masks will be judged at midnight, soup and rolls will be served to those in need of sustenance at 1:30am, and Morris Dancers will be performing on the lawns during the evening.

Today’s coffee shop terrace seen in 1973, hinting at the plight of house and park at this time.

The ball more or less coincides with the departure from Kings Weston of the Bath University department of architecture. Professor Ken Panter said: I’m sad to leave, but it will be better for the students to move to Bath. We’ve been out on a limb here.”
 
The architects are hoping the ball will stimulate interest in the future of Kings Weston. There are awful fears that if nobody takes it over, it could, like Ashton Court, crumble once more into a state of decay.”
 

As it happened, the ball proved the catalyst for the house’s next evolution. Peter picks the story up again:   

 
“Martin Kenchington, Avon County Architect, was at the Ball. He knew that Avon Police were looking for a building, persuaded them to take it and was able to save the structure and replace the famous arcaded chimneys.
 
The Ball at Kings Weston was a success as well as prolonging the life of two important buildings.  As chairman, I was last man out and at 4am the next morning I proposed to my partner, who accepted – two buildings – and a wife!”

Bristol Planners volunteer at the lilypond   

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KWAG brings volunteers up to speed on the tasks for the day.

The estate and KWAG was fortunate to host a team-building event by officers of Bristol City Council Development Management team on Wednesday 25th October. We’d managed to arrange with Kingsweston School for a group of 25 volunteers to access the area of the Georgian walled gardens around the lily pond on Napier Miles Road as the latest in our campaign to stem the tide of neglect and restore the much-loved and historic site.

The work overseen by KWAG focussed on the three strips of garden surrounding the pond, the removal of the dead box hedging, digging-up of brambles, and the felling of self-seeded saplings and shrubs. The formal box hedges succumbed last year to an onslaught of box moth caterpillar that ravaged Bristol. Here it left just a single bush alive, and that just barely. The brambles and saplings have taken advantage of the lack of maintenance since the school returned the pond area to Council Property department.

The south walk along the pond before and after the day’s events.

We were lucky enough to take advantage of the west lodge at the pond for bag storage as the team were briefed on the tasks for the day and health and safety. It was impressive, the way that the volunteers engaged with the work and threw themselves into it. Despite an unpromising weather forecast, the rain held off until the dying minutes of the event before 4pm and we even enjoyed some sun.

Tired Council volunteers pose at the end of the day outside the lodge.

We were lucky to have one of the city ecologists and tree officers as part of the team who were able to advise us on the work. The ecologist was particularly in demand when digging disturbed dozens of Common Newts and other amphibians settling down amongst the roots. These were relocated to safe areas around the pond.  

Huge inroads were made on clearance, massive progress in restoring the area. Whilst the job wasn’t completed in its entirely, the magnitude of the job was enormous and what was achieved was epic in scale. We are extremely grateful to all the Council officers who turned out for the event and made such an impact. Despite the wet finish everyone enjoyed the event and stuck with it until the very end. The space that’s been revealed is now a blank canvas to re-plan the gardens, and buys precious time for KWAG to plan a viable new future. Thanks too to Kingsweston School for hosting us, and parks and other departments of the Council for enabling the event.

Similar views of the west side of  the lilypond in 1898, and before and after recent volunteer work. The pond edge is again discernible and brambles threatening the lodge have been cut. 

…As a postscript, KWAG returned to make some investigations of the pond and have managed to clear some of the saplings alongside the road so visitors can glimpse progress on the garden areas beyond.

Some clearance at the lilypond has allowed us to find the waterline and judge the extent of the tree growth. 

Celebrations as iron bridge reopens

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Last month we reported on the ‘official’ opening of the Kings Weston Iron Bridge, but on Sunday 14th July the community celebration very much in the earlier event to shade! The event enjoyed a lovely sunny afternoon and attracted around 200 guests who were serenaded by the Bristol Ukulele Band as they gathered at the Kings Weston end of the bridge. Proceedings began with the 126th Scouts (Sea Mills) parading over the newly open bridge with their troop banners arriving in the informal arena at the west side.

Janet Poole receives flowers in thanks on behalf of KWAG. (Bob Pitchford)
Sea Mills Scouts parade their banners over the bridge. 

Janet Poole, who has been so instrumental in promoting and championing the repair of the bridge took a stand on the newly finished steps and addressed the crowd. She undertook to thank everyone involved with the project including the construction workers and support from KWAG during the lengthy process getting it reinstated. In gratitude for her tireless work, KWAG’s chair presented a bouquet of flowers on behalf of everyone who’d missed the bridge over the last nine years. Finally a ribbon was strung between the railings and ceremonially cut to re-inaugurate the historic structure.   
 
A collection held during the event raised £121 towards KWAG’s Big Bulb Plant this October, for planting of daffodils either side of the bridge. The bridge was in very active use during event, with many guests taking their first opportunity to cross the bridge in its new raised location. Louis, a twelve year old drummer, closed proceedings with a rousing session in the sun. At the generous invitation of John Barbey of Kings Weston house, many people sauntered back to the vaulted coffee shop where complementary drinks and cake rounded off a beautiful and memorable celebration, a fit conclusion to a long-running saga. 





 

Iron Bridge Returns!

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Finally!! A major milestone in the iron bridge restoration was reached at the end of last month, with the return of the historic structure, albeit 1.1 metres higher. Contractors started work early in the morning of the 30th May, bringing in a crane, the bridge strapped to a flat-loader, and closing the footpaths nearby for safety. A group of campaigners and visitors gathered at the west abutment to watch proceedings.

With spectators beyond, contractors watch as the first half of the freshly restored and painted bridge is craned back into place.
The east half of the bridge returns to meet its partner half way. 

The bridge looks resplendent in its new livery of dark green paint, a colour picked to match the original colouring found beneath old paint layers. Contractors from Dorothea Restoration and Griffiths were on hand to make sure that the components would fit back together in their new position; not an easy task with the bearing stones having to be raised and reset at their new level.

The first section, the west end, was gradually lowered into place, and proved the more troublesome of the parts. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing and cutting of the stonework it was eventually seated in position. The east end then followed, then the central plate that fastened the two ends of the bridge together. After some careful adjustment the whole structure was back in place and true.

Work will carry on now, touching up the new paintwork, erecting the steps either end, and fitting the handrails and railings to them. The road closure has been extended until the 15th to allow some of this work to be done, and the final completion is supposed to be the first week in July. Everyone is looking forward to being able to celebrate the reopening!   

T
he two halves back in place, awaiting the central joining connection.  

Forgotten guardian of Kings Weston house 

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Since WWII, until recent years, many people worried about the gradual decline of Kings Weston house and grounds during continued institutional use. No less so than when the building was in occupation By Bristol College of Science and technology. Initially moving departments from Ashley Down Campus in 1961, their plans for an extensive concrete campus and the change into a university caused local alarm, the scale of the planned facilities concerning even the Council Planning department. Eventually, resistance to the proposals meant the college were forced to look elsewhere for new premises, landing on a site outside Bath where Bath University was eventually founded.


However, not everyone at the college was oblivious to the importance of Kings Weston house. Appropriately enough, it was the architecture department that were installed under the headship of Professor Kenneth Panter. He was a man with the dedication and knowledge to begin restoration work on the building and reverse some of the vicissitudes inflicted on the place since 1938. Since that time the house had become a buildings site, before being hastily patched up for wartime occupation by the military. At the end of hostilities, it became the meanwhile home to Lawrence Weston a primary school. Neither of these temporary uses of the building had much care for the heritage features of the property. By 1961 it was described as “seedy and down-at heel”, with “tottery” chimneys and broken windows. The school had covered the mahogany doors with white paint, and the collection of paintings had been moved to the safety of the city Museum and Art Gallery.

the only photo found of Professor Panter posed in front of one of the fireplaces.  

Professor Panter commissioned urgent works to halt decay, but perhaps the biggest challenge of his eight years with the house was repairing the famous skyline. The monumental chimney arcade had been dismantled between 1959 and 1960, the Ministry of Works having “agreed that the chimneys must be taken down because they are actually dangerous.” Scaffolding had been in position so long that it was “in danger of taking root”, was “festooned” around the remains of Vanbrugh’s chimney arcade.
 
Recognising the importance of the chimneys to Vanbrugh’s design, Panter secured public money to rebuild them. Finally, by September 1968 the press was able to report that a new Doulting stone arcade was being hoisted into place. Towards the end of the department’s time at Kings Weston, Professor Panter was able to proudly tour reporters round the restored building with 120 students filling its rooms. Many works had been undertaken so fastidiously that the efforts required could hardly be guessed at. The hanging staircase had new beams inserted imperceptibly to replace failed Victorian ones, the ceiling of the  Saloon at the front of the house had been strengthened with steel beams threaded carefully through the historic fabric, and historic plasterwork was consolidated and pinned back to walls and ceilings.

A rare view of Kings Weston house without it’s famous chimneys. Painted by George Holloway, this must date to between 1960 and 1968 when the chimneys were rebuilt.

The newspaper reported the headless statue from the Echo had been retrieved and that the Professor was offering a reward for the student who succeeded in finding its lost head in the grounds.
 
As they toured the ongoing works, government minister Lord Kennet and Lord Hailes, chairman of the Historic Buildings Council, praised the school of architecture for their work to reinstate the chimney arcade. The school had spent more than £40,000 on works, £10,000 on the arcade alone, with the bulk of that having been secured from the HBC. This was Panter’s crowning achievement at Kings Weston. He continued with the architecture department when it moved to the new bath Campus in 1970 and the next organisation to occupy the house, Bristol Constabulary, were far less caring of the building.
 
We can’t find much more information about Professor Kenneth Panter and his efforts at Kings Weston. It’s a shame that, as someone so closely involved with protecting the house, his role is not better known. Naturally, there’s little evidence of his work left now, but that’s just what good restoration should be.