MESNES PARK OVERVIEW Mesnes Park is a Grade II listed Historic Landscape with a number of listed and historic features and buildings. The Mesnes Park project was an HLF funded project to conserve and restore Mesnes Park to its original landscape form and to conserve all of its buildings, monuments and features. It involved extensive public consultation, the reuse of key buildings and the incorporation of contemporary insertions. Since its completion Mesnes Park has won several conservation and design awards. Client: Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust / Wigan Council Funders: Heritage Lottery Fund and Wigan Council Consultees: Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage, Wigan Council, Friends of Mesnes Park, other local interest groups Overall Project value: Approx £9m (in two separate phases) MESNES PARK (PART OF PHASE 1) - MAIN PAVILION AND DALTON STEPS Built c.1880. Project value: Approx £2.8 m Each of the three elements of this project is individually listed on the National English Heritage Register of Listed Buildings: • Main Pavilion: Grade II Listed Building • South Dalton Steps (two tiers): Grade II Listed Structure • West Dalton Steps (two tiers): Grade II Listed Structure The Pavilion is a completely unique combination of an octagonal masonry structure adorned with highly decorative terracotta tiles, and a central cast iron frame produced by Walter MacFarlane’s Saracen Foundry in Glasgow. The central frame rises through the full height of the building to terminate in a dramatic tall glazed lantern. The Pavilion’s exterior has been restored to the highest conservation standards, including repointing, masonry repairs, and replacement of decayed original terracotta tiling. The cast iron glazed lantern roof structure and entrance canopy have been completely dismantled and restored off site in a specialist workshop, before being rebuilt on site using newly cast components where originals were lost or beyond repair. Lost decorative elements including drip frets and antifixae have been cast from new patterns developed from the original Saracen Foundry pattern books. This work has fully reinstated the Pavilion’s original dramatic appearance as documented through a number of extant historical photographs. A new colour scheme was developed for the ironwork elements, based on extensive analysis of historical photographs and paint samples taken from various original components. No traces remained of the Pavilion’s original interior, and a number of alterations over the last few decades in response to the changing needs of the building’s café tenants had seriously diminished the quality of the internal spaces. The removal of the non-original elements reopened the impressive atrium for the first time in over forty years. A clearly contemporary yet discreet interior design was developed to provide a high quality internal space for the café tenants, whilst remaining appropriately deferential to the original cast iron structure. This project has since won four separate awards for conservation and design. Mesnes Park (Part of Phase 2) – Main Entrance Lodge Built c.1878: Grade II Listed. Project value: Approx £2.2m Designed by W.H. Fletcher of Wellbeck Street,London, in the Vernacular Revival style. A substantial extension was added c.1926. It remained in active use until the retirement of the park’s last resident Foreman in 1986. Unoccupied, the building then fell into a severe state of disrepair. Persistent vandalism, fire damage, and water penetration for over twenty years accelerated the deterioration of the building’s fabric into dereliction. Prior to our involvement, large sections of the roof structure had collapsed into the building, most of the internal floors had rotted and collapsed. The entire structure was structurally unstable. The building is partly timber frame construction and a large proportion of this had rotted and decayed into structural instability. The first phase was to protect the building from further damage before and during the repair works. A secure structurally supporting internal birdcage and external protective scaffold full enclosure was constructed within and around the building. All the elements that were beyond saving were removed. The new roof structure was spliced into the original elements that could be saved and it was re-roofed to traditional conservation detailing and standards. The building was then fully repaired and restored to conservation standards with new floors and timbers where required. The brief was also to extend the building, with minimal impact to the listed structure, to house a new Community Training Centre. Our solution was a subterranean contemporary extension which is invisible from the all angles except the rear of the Lodge. Since its recent completion this project has won three separate awards.