Chris Topp attended the opening of the revamped Kensington Palace following a £12m refit

Chris Topp & Co Ltd was successful in winning a competitive tender process last November to build an external ‘Loggia’ at Kensington Palace in London for Historic Royal Palaces. They worked to a very tight deadline of the 9th March 2012.

The main structure was made in cast iron and involved asking carvers to form full size detailed carvings of each element for approval by the architect and Historic Royal Palaces and a pattern maker forming the various patterns ready to send to the foundry for casting. Mean while the roof structure was being formed, glass ordered, specialist glazing cappings agreed, lanterns and electricians sorted. The stone paving was agreed and ordered and the final details for the finishing touches approved by the architect. Staff and those at the foundry worked several consecutive weekends to complete the work on time ready for site.

The onsite teams worked quickly, hard and for long hours to get the structure up and ready for the other trades to follow on, plenty of coordination was needed between the various trades, especially with the painters to ensure we met the completion date, the project could not over run as it was part of a £12million revamp of Kensington Palace and Gardens opened by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on the 15th March.

Time Team - Phil Harding films at our workshop.

We were asked to make a replica cannon muzzle to help show that local blacksmiths in the late 1400’s could have easily adapted their skills from producing cart wheels to making the staves for a muzzle and how the handmade making of each muzzle had it’s own ‘signature mark’. Chris and Arek spent an afternoon in the workshop with Time Team presenter Phil Harding making the wrought iron staves and hoops for a cannon.

In a recent Channel 4 programme the "Wars of the Roses: A Time Team Special", Tony Robinson discovered that what a team of archaeologists, who have been working for the last 5 years, has found is changing the entire understanding, not just of this iconic battle, but the very nature of warfare during Medieval times.

Bosworth is a site of national historic significance, being the location of one of the three most important battles fought on British soil. It is the site where the Battle of Bosworth took place in 1485 and infamous as the place where King Richard III lost his life and against huge odds Henry Tudor won the battle and the Tudor reign was born. It was a turning point in English history, the end of the Middle Ages and the savage beginnings of the country we recognise today.

Experts now believe that the battle was not only fought in an entirely different place from the 'official' site but that gunpowder weapons, including large cannons, were used in far larger numbers than previously thought. In order to test these theories the Time Team crew built and fired replica cannons and cannon balls, and deployed some of the most sophisticated cameras in the world to examine the grisly remains of soldiers killed in the Wars.

The conclusions they have drawn radically change the view of medieval warfare being ruled by knights in shining armour.

This Channel 4 TV programme was broadcast on the 16th March 2011

Television programmes filmed at our workshop

The Channel Four TV programme – Time Team have again filmed at our workshop for a forthcoming episode to be screened on Wednesday 16^th March at 8pm. In this episode Tony Robinson examines new research into the Battle of Bosworth, which challenges the understanding of this iconic battle and the entire nature of medieval English warfare. The Time Team presenters and film crew were filming us making a replica cannon as part of the understanding of past skills and techniques.

Blink Films filmed at our workshops for a documentary about the Eiffel Tower called ‘Monumental Challenge’.

The Eiffel Tower is undergoing a restoration programme, the first major works since the tower was built in 1889. It was built by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, which was to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the French Revolution. Its construction in 2 years, 2 months and 5 days was a technical and architectural achievement and was only intended to last for 20 years.

Blink Films have captured this major programme of works and explains how this now iconic monument has stood the test of time and why the wrought iron material used in its creation is so important.

Blink Films filmed at our workshop the processes; we still use, which would have been used in the making of the 7,300 tonnes of wrought iron for its construction.

This documentary is being shown on the History Channel towards the end of March.

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