Brewood Hall: View showing the Lantern Roof (taken by drone)
Brewood Hall is topped by an elborate, wooden-framed, glazed skylight which, because of its raised design, we've always called the Lantern Roof. This is not thought to be an original feature of the design; rather I've always considered it to most likely date from 19th century alterations. It provides natural light to part of the attics on the second floor otherwise without daylight. Formerly, the light was shared between two rather modest rooms which were assumed had served as servant bedrooms. The need for servant bedrooms having lapsed, I decided that the space would make a tranquil library and the studwork partition between the two rooms was removed to give a convenient area, albeit nested into the sloping roof at the front of the Hall.
Part of Brewood Hall Library: The low-level units make use of the restricted headroom under the sloping roof
The exposed location of the lantern roof hastened its deterioration and a copy the original design was made and fitted. Unfortunately, this copy used a soft wood which resulted in a rather short life. By 2006, I was faced with replacing the structure for the second time.
View showing deterioration to the earlier lantern roof in 2006, prior to its replacement.
This time, I made sure that a hard wood (Idigbo from Africa, I think) was used in the construction. Once the custom joinery was complete, it was shipped to Brewood and the major task of raising it into position was undertaken, purely using manpower.
My dog Tai inspects the replacement lantern roof on its arrival in 2007
Preparations are made to lift the new lantern roof.
By the end of 2007 the new lantern roof was fitted, glazed and undercoated. Because of poor weather, the final painting, inside and out, was deferred until Summer 2008.
Dave paints the inside of the new lantern roof, whist John paints the outside.
As early as 2011 the need for further restorative care was noted but not provided in a timely manner. Consequently, in 2019 water ingress was occuring in the library. Dean volunteered to make an inspection and we were disappointed to confirm that, although the timber was surviving well, the paint film had deteriorated and much of the putty in the glazing had dried out. Some wooden flashing at the base of the lantern roof had completely detached. Dean carried out emergency repairs to carry us through the winter.
Brewood Hall Lantern Roof: deterioration prior to emergency repairs in 2020
With the better weather in Spring 2021, Jim carried out full repairs and outside repainting.
"All scraped and sanded down and loose putty removed, ready for primer" on 21st April 2021
Brewood Hall: Lantern Roof on completion of repairs
All that remains to be done is lantern roof internal repainting (oh, and finishing cataloguing and organising the library itself).
My posts about Brewood Hall
You can find all my posts about Brewood Hall here (in reverse date-of-posting order), with links to albums of pictures.
Pictures of Brewood Hall Lantern Roof
Brewood Hall Lantern Roof
