The Ancient Monuments Laboratory

Wall painting conservation

The condition audit of the wall painting collection has continued and the information is being archived into a recently developed database. This has already allowed the identification of the wall paintings in most urgent need of attention. Two of these sites, Longthorpe Tower in Cambridgeshire and Farleigh Hungerford Castle in Somerset, were investigated as part of the collaborative training programme with the Courtauld Institute of Art.

The Great Chamber at Longthorpe Tower

Despite the attention that the internationally important secular fourteenth-century wall paintings in Longthorpe Tower have received in recent years, no long-term strategy for their maintenance had been devised. The various repairs undertaken during the last 50 years and the ad hoc approach taken towards the presentation of the paintings have obscured their overall legibility. The new work investigated their present condition, undertook minor emergency treatment, and assessed the measures available to safeguard their future preservation. The physical history of the scheme was documented to clarify the relation between original technique and effects of past treatment. In general, the condition of the paintings appears to be reasonably stable, although the apparently active structural movement of the building had resulted in extensive cracking of the plaster.

St George and kneeling knight in St Leonard's Chapel at Farleigh Hungerford Castle

The Chapel of St Leonard, Farleigh Hungerford Castle, retains significant remains of wall paintings dating from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. Owing to the variety of schemes and the complex nature of their physical history, the primary objective of the investigation was to record their layer structure and condition. In addition, a moisture survey of the fabric was undertaken with a view to understanding the relationship between the present environmental conditions (the building is below ground level) and the active microbiological growth and moisture-related deterioration of the paintings and plaster.