The Ironart team were commissioned to restore some heavily distorted and corroded tomb railings within the Jewish burial ground and Congregationalist Cemetery in Ponsharden also known as the ‘Dissenters Burying Ground’ which is located near Falmouth and Penryn in Cornwall. The Congregationalist cemetary was established 1808 but abandoned in the 1930s since when it has sadly suffered from 80 years of neglect and vandalism. The graveyard was overgrown with self-seeded trees, brambles and ivy. Everything was in a very sorry state including the heavily corroded wrought ironwork which never benefits from being exposed to the elements in a coastal environment!
In 2012 a dedicated group of volunteers from Falmouth took it upon themselves to give this graveyard some love and were successful in securing planning permission and then finding funding to carry out a survey and renovation project. Ironart were approached to see if we could salvage and restore some of the wrought iron iron tomb railings together with cast iron rope encircling another tomb. We worked together with the team from Sally Strachey Historic Conservation who were commissioned to renew the stonework.
Andy worked alongside Cecily to remove the delicate wasted bars from the grips of several trees which had grown through them, they had to carefully drill out all of the stubs from the granite copings. They brought everything back to the Ironart workshop here in Larkhall where the team set to work extending the wasted bars using reclaimed, antique puddled wrought iron.
King’s Trust Foundation Bursary Student blacksmith Ashleigh Garstang was on placement here at Ironart at that time and was tasked with a lot of the forgework on this restoration project. We had some copies of the original cast iron rope detail cast, and some new lengths made. Strachey Conservation then returned to Cornwall to put the stone bases back together, after which Andy and Ashleigh carefully set about reinstating the refurbished ironwork.
The Ponsharden Cemetary has been preserved for future generations by the energies and commitment of the volunteers who ran the project and is protected by English Heritage as a Scheduled Monument of national importance.
