St Michael's Church, Alkerton

The church was built in c1200 with 14th century additions. The chancel was rebuilt in the early 17th century with restorations by J Cossins in 1889. The church was built in local ironstone ashlar work with steeply pitched stone slate roofs to the chancel and south porch.

The nave has an elaborately carved frieze on the south clerestory elevation with carving depicting beasts, grotesque figures and musical instruments characteristic of work carried out by north Oxford masons. There is also an elaborately carved frieze on the nave west elevation at parapet level with carvings to the coping stones.

Since the latter half of the 20th century, erosion of the stonework and especially of the delicate and interesting frieze carvings has substantially accelerated. Following an appeal by parishioners and grant aid from English Heritage, a programme of conservation work was proposed by Clews Architects and carried out during the spring and summer months of 1994.

Lime method consolidation of specific areas included the minimal cleaning necessary to carry out the repairs, removing lichen and vegetation etc. and the limited defrassing of areas which were too decayed to be consolidated, this included loose dust of a small particle nature. Careful descaling of the stonework removed all the smaller flakes of stone that had become too loose to be refixed by surface consolidation. The larger pieces that were breaking away were held in position by pinning using fine stainless steel pins set in a polyester resin based adhesive. The joints and cracks around these sections were grouted with lime putty, the edges of the flakes being supported with a mix of lime mortar.

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