Princethorpe College, Warwickshire - Bespoke Rainwater

Here’s a Throwback from 2014. Princethorpe College in Warwickshire

The building was originally built as St Mary's Priory for a community of French Benedictine nuns in the late 1830s, before becoming a Catholic College in 1966.

For our part of the refurbishment, we had to replicate the 100+ year old rainwater pipes, gutters, hoppers and fittings. Every part of this job was bespoke. And that meant A LOT of pattern work.

It was typical of rainwater pipes from this era to be rectangular, but these were octagonal in shape and slightly larger than the common 100x75mm.

The pipes had plain sockets and were to be attached to the wall with bespoke decorative earbands.

The gutters & fittings, although fairy typical in profile, had a “dogtooth” design across the front. Something which, at the time, we hadn’t made before.

The existing decorative hopper heads needed replacing too, and due to the buildings listed status, these needed replicated exactly.

Everything was then cast in our foundry here in Halifax, before being fettled and painted, ready for despatch.

There was lots involved in this job, but it’s a great example of the highly skilled craftmanship of our pattern makers, Foundrymen and painters.