Lead work
Lead work in building is a real art. It’s an amazing skill, and the intricate operations and methods involved take a long time to learn. I visited a site yesterday that was having extensive lead work done: Extensive lead valleys (behind stone parapets that we’d made) and a large section of flat roof; and some amazing work on some dormer windows. Plumbers traditionally do lead work, (hence their name plumber derived from the latin for lead) and many of course still do, but in the case of the job I looked at yesterday the lead worker only did leadwork and no plumbing. He’d trained specifically to do it as he found the craft fascinating, and travelled all round the country to do specialist jobs. One of the few firms that still make traditional ’sand-cast’ lead are actually in Leicester, which is not far from us: Norman & Underwood. They have done it for over 1 hundred years, and still use all the traditional methods.
Back here in the stone yard it’s a bit miserable today: light rain, and cold and overcast. Half the masons are in the workshop and half are in the yard, but the ones in the yard I think wish they weren’t! I’ve got to go to a job in Melton Mowbray in a moment. Another returning customer who has moved to a new modernish house, and who wants to give it a very modern feel. He’s building a predominantly glass extension, and wants us the make him a very large, but simply moulded stone lintol/beam to go over his fireplace opening in which he’s going to have an ultra modern wood stove. He’s done a few sketches, and he’s a talented artist, and it will look amazing.
We’re looking at some new stone samples at the moment. We want to find another limestone, to offer to our customers who love our limestone fireplaces. We been in contact with many quarries, and are beginning to get some good options.