Bricklaying Telford students help to preserve historic country estate

The students have been invited to help repair and re-point the grade two listed perimeter of the walled garden, which was originally designed by famous landscape architect Capability Brown in the 18th century.

It is part of an exciting new partnership between Telford College and Weston Park, which will see more than a dozen bricklaying students on site at the estate near Shifnal for one day a week over the coming months.

Weston Park is owned by the Weston Park Foundation, an independent charity which looks after the house, the park, and the estate’s historic collections that were given to the nation by the present Earl of Bradford in 1986.

“This project with Telford College students is a really nice blending of the conservation and education objectives of the Foundation,” said curator and head of learning Gareth Williams. “These walls are not constructed with the Portland cement you find in modern properties, but with lime water, which enables the walls to move slightly and helps us to meet our long-term conservation objectives."

“The Telford College students are assisting us by raking out the old mortar, re-pointing areas where water has eroded over time, and bringing the walls back to good condition.”

The students are working under the supervision of college tutors plus stonemason and head conservator Luke Unsworth.

Jackie Bradnick, lead work placement co-ordinator at Telford College, said: “This partnership is the result of many months of meetings and discussions with the team at Weston Park. It is fantastic to see it up and running, and working so well.

“Most of a bricklaying curriculum focuses on new-build construction, so this is an incredibly valuable opportunity to expose our students to a very different side of the job – the art of traditional heritage brickwork.”