National Trust hosts Building Limes Forum ‘Lime Slam’ at Corfe Castle

The National Trust’s Corfe Castle is hosting a Lime Slam on behalf of The Building Limes Forum on Saturday 9 March 2019.

This special heritage workshop, which welcomes members of the public, aims to explain the importance of using lime for the conservation of historic buildings and will reveal some of the original mortars used at Corfe Castle. This will be the first of the Building Limes Forum’s (registered charity) UK events of 2019 which invites the public and its members to discover more about building limes.

The organisation aims to raise awareness about this traditional building material and why it is so important for both the conservation of heritage buildings as well as new applications, its ecological and environmental benefits, and its aesthetic qualities.

It is therefore very fitting that Corfe Castle, where the first stone was laid more than 1,000 years ago and is still a gleaming tower of Purbeck limestone, should be the subject for the first Lime Slam of 2019.

The day includes a guided tour led by Pam White, Visitor Experience Officer for Corfe Castle, who has spent more than 20 years researching the history of the castle and the materials used in its construction.

Pam will be showing participants of the Lime Slam around the castle to view historic mortars, mortar trials and recent lime-based repairs.
A detailed explanation will be given about how lime was used during the two-year restoration project in 2014 and how this important building material will continue to help safeguard the future of Corfe Castle.

The morning guided tour will be followed by presentations from members of the Building Limes Forum, which has a growing community of lime practitioners, heritage building professionals and building conservation students.

“Corfe Castle is the perfect conservation work case study,” said Pam. “There are records available of what work was done and where and Dorset is one of only three counties in England where the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments of England carried out a comprehensive survey”.

“We make new discoveries every time there is conservation work on the castle, and recent work has revealed mason’s marks on the Tudor arches to the outer bridge, and before that the site of one of the castle’s garderobes or toilets.”