On Saturday, April 22nd the Messenger team attended a community St George’s Day event hosted by Dunstable Town Council and their High Street Heritage Action Zone at Priory House. The work at Grade II* listed Priory House is an important project for the Dunstable High Street Heritage Action Zone, which is run in partnership by Dunstable Town Council and Historic England.
Our craft skills demonstrations were focussed on informing the public of the current project to repair the historic elements of Priory House to both the medieval undercroft and the external elevations. The undercroft, constructed of vaulted stonework, is of national significance because it’s a rare and almost complete example of its kind from the 13th century.
We were ably supported on the day by our masonry conservation contractor for the works, Cliveden Conservation.
The relatively sunny day helped in bringing out crowds of people to the well-attended event who were able to engage in creating plaster casts and to try their hands at working a piece of the local Clunch limestone which is being used for the vaulted undercroft repairs.
You can read more about the ongoing restoration works at Priory House here.
