Before any work could be done on the interiors of Wesley Hall, the structure of the building was addressed. The first job was to rectify some of the serious movement in the building and the bowing of the windows which had occurred when the original steel lintels rusted and expanded behind the brickwork. To fix this, each lintel was replaced with every brick removed, numbered and then rebuilt in exactly the same place as they were originally.

Extensive building work to replace the rusted lintels above the windows

Repointing

In several locations around Wesley Hall, significant amounts of plant life were growing through the walls. It was essential that this was resolved straight away due to the significant structural damage it causes in a short space of time. Once the plant life was removed the whole building had to be repointed to store-up the structure, help prevent damp, and fill the gaps where organic matter may have take root again.

Guttering

Much of Wesley Hall's 1901 guttering was badly damaged and needed replacing. Incredibly, the original design of cast iron guttering was found still to be available from J & JW Longbottom based in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. This meant that broken and missing sections could be replaced like for like using historically accurate materials.

Disabled Access

One of the biggest structural changes in Wesley Hall was the installation of disabled access at the side of the building. In order to make it look as seamless as possible a window was removed and a door put in its place.This meant the original lintel and surrounding stonework fitted around the door perfectly, making it look like it had always been there.

Restoration of Masonry

There was lots of damage to the decorative masonry at the front and right-hand side of the building. Despite looking like stone, when the masonry was assessed it was discovered that it was in fact made of a type of tough porcelain. This material was cast rather than carved and included the names of financial donors from when the Hall was originally built. Unfortunately, it was not possible to replace the worst affected pieces with the same material so instead samples were taken to a gritstone quarry and matched with actual stone. These were cut by Mark Eaton, a stonemason from Birchover, a small village in Derbyshire.

Replacement stone work to the front of the Hall

The steps leading up to the front door were heavily worn making them unstable and a potential hazard to the public Instead of replacing them like for like, granite was used because of its hardness and durability. The granite was sourced form Lowes Marble and Granite, Derbyshire.

Unforseen Problems

Large projects rarely go to plan without an unexpected hitch. For Wesley Hall this hitch came when work was being done to the chimney. The mortar holding the bricks together on the internal wall had completely perished and while the flue lining was being replaced, the whole chimney collapsed in on itself. This esulted in several weeks more work while the structure was rebuilt from the ground up.

Outside Space

Original stone paving was only laid about three metres up the right-hand side of the building, the rest was bare earth. To make this into a safe and usable outdoor area, York stone flags were laid by Whitby Stonework Restoration Limited.