Wrought Iron Architectural Metalwork
Designed & manufactured in the U.K
By: Chris Topp & Co Ltd, North Yorkshire
Tel: 01845 501415
Castle Howard - Yorkshire's very own empty plinth has been reinstated after a £60,000 restoration programme. An ornamental Grecian brazier, or urn, is back in place on top of a 100ft high column at Castle Howard. Leaping copper flames which have been gilded to reflect the sun's light with a fiery glow crown the impressive structure, resting on a ten-foot Grecian tripod on the column.
Castle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, one of the grandest private residences in Britain; most of it was built between 1699 and 1712 for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh. It is not a true castle. Castle Howard has been the home of part of the Howard family for more than 300 years.
The task in 2002 was to reproduce the lost original cast iron beacon atop the 120-foot stone tower a monument to VII Earl. With only a nineteenth century woodcut to go from, deduction of a credible structure was not easy.
The result was a 15 feet high structure weighing about four tons. Constructed largely from cast iron with wrought iron basket and braces and copper flames, the beacon was fitted and assembled in the workshop before being dismantled and hauled up the tower piece by heavy piece, in a Northeasterly December gale.
We worked with Easingwold-based Ebor Stone, York gilder Bill Bonney to restore the magnificent monument, which is visible for miles around. The column was erected in 1870 by public subscription, to commemorate the 7th Earl, who was Viceroy of Ireland. No blueprints survived of the original four-tonne brazier and tripod, so the team poured over a faded illustration, which appeared in The Builder magazine in 1870, to produce the detailed design. We are very confident we've created something very much like the original, it was a complex job, working with cast and wrought iron, and we also had to be sure the structure was strong enough to survive the load stresses and buffeting it will get form the elements.
