Rushton Hall, Northamptonshire

Orangery development requires expertise and architectural stone advice

What a joy it was to be approached to supply our highly-acclaimed Lincolnshire limestone and to provide specialist technical expertise and architectural stone services on an extension project to one of the finest ancient Halls in the East Midlands.

Our stone expertise was first called upon in 2015 by the owner of Rushton Hall, in Northamptonshire, who had hired two firms of architects to create their vision – Pavilion Estates and Malcolm Strangeway. We were able to take the basic outlines of the façades from the existing drawings and add in all the stone detailing required for the final design. Our loading calculations for the stone piers revealed that a planned secondary steel structure was not necessary.

Clipsham stone

In addition to providing our technical advice, Stamford Stone was also chosen to supply the stone for this project from its own quarry site in the neighbouring county of Rutland. After offering a number of limestones to Historic England and to the client, they eventually decided on our beautiful Clipsham stone.

Our creamy/gold coloured limestone is highly sought after and has been used on many prestigious architectural stone projects across the UK, including The Houses of Parliament, The Palace of Westminster, The Nazrin Shah Centre in Oxford and many historical college buildings in Cambridge and Oxford.

All bespoke stonework for Rushton Hall was quarried at our Clipsham quarry and manufactured at our stone processing centre at Helpston, facilitated by our state of the art 6 Axis Marchetti CNC machine. Once produced, the stone pieces were carefully wrapped and delivered to site.

Architectural stone expertise

Creating stone buildings and extensions is a highly involved process which focuses down to the tiniest of detail. We provided our architectural stone expertise to work out where best to place joints between stones in order to ensure the structural integrity of the building. 

Details of the mouldings were finalised, drawn in and confirmed with the client’s design team. Working with 3mm joints, we had to illustrate the boundaries of every stone so that each piece could be cut to the right size. In addition, we made full-size templates for the masons to work the stone from. All stones were given an identifying number so that the fixers on site knew which stones to put where.

We provided large-scale drawings of the different elevations, with plan sections through many courses, and vertical sections of different types of construction – both essential references both for production and fixing of the stone. We also advised on and helped design the special fixings for steelwork required to keep the stone in position.

Fixing 

Under the direction of Lee Muxlow, a team of specialist fixer masons put the stones together, working on several parts of the site simultaneously. Having been safely and correctly placed, the alignment of the mouldings was checked and adjusted if required, before the stones were pointed and given a final rub and wash down.

This complex project was split into five stages of construction. Over an 18-month period, we worked closely with the team on site, making regular visits and co-ordinating the programme of works and deliveries using our own fleet of vehicles. Check out our time-lapse video of the build below.

Stone supplies 

The contribution we made to this project didn’t stop here, we also supplied stone flooring, tiles and landscaping products from our Stamford Stone At Home portfolio.

Venue and facilities

Rushton Hall is set amidst 25 acres of grounds and has buildings dating back to the 16th century. The proposed addition of the  Orangery took 10 years to get through the planning stages, a process which also involved gaining a green light from Historic England. The redevelopment project was completed in the summer of 2017 at a cost of £7M.

The 51 individually-styled bedroomed hotel has been awarded ‘The Inspector’s Choice’ of four red stars by the AA for the quality of its accommodation and services, making this historic estate stand out above all other county hotels.

If you would like to discuss a stone project, get in touch with our team of friendly stone specialists on 01780 740 970.