Project Description: Marlipins Museum, High Street, Shoreham
Client: Sussex Past
Contract Sum: £34,086.00 + vat
Contractor: JJ Walker Roofing
Contract Type / Period: JCT Minor Works 2016 / weeks
Marlipins Museum is located along the High Street in Shoreham by Sea, facing the seafront.
It comprises a stone built structure, parts of which date back to the C12th, being one of the earliest secular buildings in the country, and is grade II* listed, and classified as a Scheduled Monument.
It is likely that the original function of the building was either as a warehouse or workshop.
The external walls are generally C13th in origin, some 600mm (3'0") thick, of bungeroosh construction, with flint and brick facings, with the front wall being the principle feature, faced in a checker board pattern of Caen stone and knapped flint work.
The roof structure is comprised of king post roof trusses with longitudinal king post purlins and queen posts, some of which have been modified to a dropped tie type in order to make the roof attic more usable. The roof is clad on the eastern slope with Horsham stone slates, and on the western and rear hipped slopes, with clay peg tiles.
The re-roofing and remedial work was necessary due to a number of factors :
- Significant water ingress into the building over a long period of time, threatening the integrity of the structure, particularly at the northern end of the building.
- The problem of detritus and loose mortar falling off the roof into the gallery below, and exhaust gases entering from the public house next door.
- There was no roofing membrane and in many ways the building was open to the elements, making the building very cold in winter.
The work involved a complete re-tile / re-slate of the roof structure on a 'like for like' basis, using recycled and 'second' clay tiles and Horsham stone slates, incorporating a breathable roofing membrane between new battens / counter battens.
A new ply substrate was introduced, fixed to the top of the existing rafters with penny gaps, so that the visual integrity of the roof was maintained.
Other work included repainting of the cast iron rainwater goods with bitumised paint, as well as remedial work to the terne coated stainless steel box gutter at the junction of where the new extension adjoins the original building, to prevent ingress of water into the building.
The work was carried out in close consultation with Historic England, so that as much of the original fabric was retained as possible, and a viewing panel was inserted by cutting through the ply to reveal the underside of the Horsham stone slates.
