Murdoch Awards demonstrate a royal connection

[A ROYAL CONNECTION emerged at the Lead Contractors Association Murdoch Awards, which marked 26 years this year. The three Murdoch Awards are given only to those who demonstrate the very highest standards of craftmanship in leadwork, whether it is in roofing or more recently ornamental skills.

LCA chair Allan Anderson opened proceedings and welcomed a record turnout of members who were in attendance – not only to witness an awards event but to also undertake further professional development and listen to experts from the industry sharing their knowledge.

The winner of the 2022 Murdoch Award was P Webb Roofing & Building Services Ltd for the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle (pictured below).

The firm undertook the replacement of the 100-year-old lead roof on the chamber. The lead roof replacement included the roof and vertical sides of the historic glazed roof lantern – which runs centrally the full length of the Waterloo Chamber – and the two lower roofs on each side.

In addition, they carried out the replacement of lead cladding to the six early 19th-century iron roof trusses, which span the width of the Waterloo Chamber. They support the lantern roof and are from which the lower roofs are hung. The iron trusses bear off stone buttresses on each side of the chamber, the caps of which were also lead clad to reduce water ingress and mitigate the risk of corrosion to the truss ends.

The roof was re-designed to rework rainwater catchment areas to remove high volume areas and exceed 100-year storm water runoff resilience. As the building is historic and of great importance, a lot of the detailing was bespoke, displaying immense craftsmanship and in addition the contractor went to great lengths to ensure the design complied with the LCA Guide to Best Practice and provided maximum ventilation.

Further, the design changes by the project architect, accepted by Historic England, specified a flush lantern window façade with the rectangle rainwater pipes ‘hidden’, which resulted in an important detail integrated into the design while maintaining an aesthetically pleasing appearance. That change importantly cast no shadow over the historic glazing panels that could be read from inside the building looking up. A change to the historic design, which is practical but benefits the aesthetics with a nod to the Victorian ‘functional but beautiful’, they so often hid rainwater pipes in columns. The lead was supplied by CEL and ALM.

The Murdoch Sponsors Award Winner was announced as Northwest Lead Ltd for Manchester Royal Infirmary (right).

The split-level cornice used Code 6 lead and was installed in a staggered welt pattern with copper clips to the leading edge and to the welts. The higher level of the cornice was to have the heavy section cast-iron guttering laid upon it, which they identified as being a potential cause of thermal restriction; so they came up with a solution that involved welding castlead blocks to the cornice which were cut to height to accommodate the gutter levels and were only positioned within the central third of each panel so that the gutter weight wasn’t imposing on the parts of the cornice lead which needed to expand or contract.

The welts were positioned in such a way that the cast lead support blocks could sit at the correct locations to sufficiently support the cast iron gutters whilst maintaining correct sizing and fixing of the cornice panels.

The cupola cladding used Code 6 for all the works: the original decorative timber scrolls were badly eroded, so it was decided that the new scrolls would have a lead covering to protect the skyward faces and were fixed at the head within a rebate and covered with a decorative timber panel to protect the top edge and fixings.

A new timber finial post and ball was constructed and covered with lead separately, so as to be fed over a stainless rod for stability which in turn required intermediate sleeves to be welded to the joint areas around the rod to maintain the weathering between the different components.

The winner of the latest Murdoch Award, the Ornamental Award, was Architectural Lead and Metalwork Ltd for the Windsor Collar Casting (pictured below).

Those were sandcast collars manufactured for Windsor Castle. The project demonstrated the sandcasting technique, from pattern to finished product, of rainwater pipe collars that are used on the restoration work at Windsor Castle. The pattern for the component comprised a two-part section for the body of the collar and a core box for moulding a sand core, used to create the internal void which houses the rainwater pipe.

Congratulations are due to all the winners and finalists of this year’s Murdoch Awards. As the independent guardian of the lead industry standards, the LCA represents the Mark of Quality, supplying technical information and services to support the industry and drive up standards. q www.ecclesiasticalandheritageworld.co.uk 45