10/07/2019 – 17/07/2019
Location: Boxley Abbey, Sandling, ME14 3BT, Maidstone , United Kingdom
Each year the SPAB decamps from its London HQ to put its advice and expertise into practice at its annual summer working party. An increasingly popular event, it offers the chance for volunteers, ranging from informed amateurs interested in buildings and history to heritage and architectural professionals, to work alongside the country’s best craftspeople.
This year’s event will be held at medieval Boxley Abbey, a former monastic site near Maidstone in Kent. Excitingly, the working party will also partly be held at St Andrew’s (former) Chapel, a fascinating building just within the abbey’s outer precinct and recently purchased by the SPAB.
The working party this year will focus on the repair and consolidation of the masonry garden walls at Boxley Abbey, which will provide a unique opportunity for building professionals and enthusiasts alike to learn traditional conservation building skills through hands-on experience. They also plan to build a temporary field kiln on the SPAB’s site at St Andrew’s, in order to burn local limestone to determine the correct mortar to use on site. Also at St Andrew’s, the Kent Archaeological Society will lead the participants in undertaking a number of archaeological investigations.
For more information and to register, please follow this link here.