St. Peter’s Church in Markby is a rare example of a church with a thatched roof in the UK and it is the only thatched church in Lincolnshire. Interestingly, the church roof was originally tiled. In 1672 Richard Whyte, a then churchwarden, thatched the roof and took the tiles by way of payment. St. Peter’s is 3 miles from the town of Alford in the Lincolnshire Wolds. It is built on the site of an old priory and has since had a chequered history.
The box pews at St. Peter’s in Markby were added in the 19th century. The recent redecoration highlighted the need for their cleaning and part restoration of the historic woodgrained finish. Research had revealed that some of the box pews have been opened up by way of removing some doors, two functioning boxed pews remain. The others have been effectively turned into open seating. The date of the woodgraining is unknown. It’s appearance is of a vernacular brushed and combed woodrgrain, having a mottle.
The objective was to clean and consolidate the existing woodgrained surface and to retouch and restore where necessary. All scratches, chips and knocks required retouching. Large areas of loss and damage required a complete restoration to match the original. To effectively recreate the original woodgraining the colour of the ground coat (the undercoat colour to which the scumble is applied) and the scumble have to recreated. This is achieved by taking a paint sample and hand mixing the materials required. Below we are mixing the ground coat. This will be the base on which to carry out the woodgraining.
The panel balanced on the pew shown below left was used to gauge the colour of the scumble. The scumble was hand mixed and tweaked on site until the correct colour was achieved.
Once cleaned and consolidated all existing woodgraining that was to be conserved was retouched where necessary with the colour matched scumble. All areas to be completely restored where first given a ground coat and then woodgrained in the same style as the original. In this case it was a mix of brush work on the pews and brush and comb work on the pulpit all with a little mottling applied.
Like the south wall seating area the puplit and pulpit stairway required more woodgraining restoration (see below).
It is unknown whether the church is currently open to the public. For more information and contacts about the church visit their website here.
An interesting Aside
The door to St Peter’s at Markby is covered in tiny holes, but this, however, is not due to an infestation. These are tiny nail holes which relate to a quirky piece of folklore. It is told; that if you run three times, widdershins, around the church and then hammer a nail in the door, you will see a ghost.
