Issue 41 Spring web - Flipbook - Page 60
ASWS helps drive
conservation effort at
iconic motor museum
When steel window specialist, ASWS, was called in to advise on the condition of some early ‘F7’ type
fenestration at the world famous Brooklands Museum, the birthplace of British motorsport and
aviation, in Surrey, the company not only outlined a viable repair strategy for the heavily corroded
casements, but also provided an enablement service to facilitate all of the other works being undertaken
by the main contractor.
The museum occupies 32 acres of what was the world’s
first purpose-built circuit, opened in 1907, along with four
listed buildings, including the Edwardian Clubhouse and
Members Hill Restaurant. The entire site was designated
as a conservation area by Surrey County Council in 1989
and the museum itself opened in 1991.
The contract carried out by London based ITC Concepts
Ltd on behalf of the trust which runs the site involved
extensive repair and refurbishment work, which began
early last year under the supervision of Brooklands trust’s
own Clerk of Works. The windows are of the early ‘standard casement’ or F7 type frames typical of the era and
have inevitably suffered from the exposed location on
what was used as an airfield and aircraft factory during
World War Two.
ASWS Director, Kris Bennell explained, “We have
carried out a number of contracts like this for other clients
in the past, such as at Farnborough Business Park, which
was a very similar project. This project also had a need for
enabling for, as we have increasingly seen in recent years
we are asked to remove a window or screen from an upper
storey elevation to provide access for a hoist or chute and
store the frames safely at our secure facility until the client
is ready for it to be reinstalled at the end of the work.”
“In the case of Brooklands Museum, we took all the
elements of the old 1st floor steel screen back to our
workshops in London where they were grit-blasted, repaired and completely redecorated before being puttyglazed to match the rest of the surrounding frames; before
finally being reinstalled when ITC had completed all its
refurbishment work. And in between time, our team
spent some weeks on site conserving the half dozen large
F7 windows there. These windows were also removed,
blasted and fully redecorated and reglazed on site, while
the museum and café remained open to the public.”
The Site Manager for ITC Concepts Ltd., Shane Allen,
confirmed, “I hadn’t worked with ASWS before, but
taking that window out to facilitate the access we needed
was an ideal solution in the circumstances, while their
restoration work carried out on the ground floor windows
in the café also went very well.”
