Turning back time for clock

THE historic exterior clock at The White Hart Hotel has been restored to its former glory as part of its renovations.

The team at Eskdale Restoration has over 75years of collective experience in the fields of conservation, restoration and historic decorative arts and craft.

“The workshop is based in Lincoln, from here and on site we conserve, restore, and create objects and interiors,” explained owner Susan Lee.

“Along the way we have worked with and continue to learn from the most distinguished architects and craftsmen. We also undertake work from private individuals, museums and galleries, local authorities, historic and heritage organisations, and designers.”

Established in 2005 by Susan after she completed her Masters and Honours degree in the conservation and restoration of historic objects, Eskdale is currently working on the Bailgate hotel’s historic clock on the exterior wall.

The clock surround is originally made from pressed copper and is hollow, rather than it being solid copper.

“It was interesting when I first went to take the paint samples because you have to get right back down to the substrate or else you might miss any information when you take an example and it turned out that in this case it was all copper, which was quite surprising.”

The clock face is the finishing touch to the restoration and is being worked on by a firm in Derby which aims to get it back to its original working order.

Susan added three light bulbs were exposed during the clock mechanism work: “It obviously lights up at night.

“It’s nice to be involved and have local people look after and restore local history. It will be good to see the clock back to its original intention.”

The restoration company was also chosen to work on gilding the eagles for King Charles’ anointing screen for his coronation in May.

“The intention was to restore the clock’s surround to its original scheme or thereabouts and to get that information, we had to take paint samples of every element of the surface and look under the microscope at the history of the decorative scheme, and from that we can determine early paint colours found.

“In this case it was a light blue, dark blue, a lovely stone colour, a lead white and some gilding, so we’ve restored it back to that scheme.”

The eagles formed part of the framework of the screen which featured a specially created screen of fine embroidery, held by poles hewn from an ancient windblown Windsor oak tree and mounted with eagles cast in bronze and gilded in gold leaf.

“It’s a once in a lifetime thing, so it kind of makes you feel quite privileged,” said Susan.

Visit www.eskdalerestoration.co.uk