In April 2024 the Ironart team were tasked with the refurbishment of historic balustrading on a Grade II listed house on Lansdown which is on the north side of Bath. The house is a local landmark and one of a few villas originally built in 1738 by famous Bath architect John Wood the Elder – known for The Circus and The Royal Crescent – and according to local records, was remastered in 1802 by another local architect Charles Harcourt Masters.

Andy made the first site inspection and was delighted to find this lovely, unusual and historic balustrade gracing the house. These railings were clearly made by master craftsmen using time-honoured traditional blacksmithing forming and joining techniques.  At first glance, everything looked in good order, the ironwork had clearly been well looked after over the years, but rust patches were forming where the layers of old paint had started to fail.

The Ironart team carefully removed the wrought iron balustade from the stone copings – this was slightly tricky where the bottom rail joints had seized fast over the years – and transported it back to our workshop for refurbishment. While handling this lovely project the whole team were in awe of the sheer detail and quality of the unusal ironwork. Working with high quality historic ironwork is one of the most rewarding aspects of our work, it’s an opportunity for all of us to appreciate the artistry and expertise of the blacksmiths working locally in Bath many, many years ago. 

The team carefully cleaned and primed the panels. On close inspection the balustrade was missing some of the design detail, where elements had broken off. The Ironart team painstakingly matched and replaced some of the scrolls, snub ends and twig detailing using reclaimed material – authentic traditional puddled wrought iron to remain faithful to the original fabric. We reinstated the post fixings, made new rivets to secure everthing and finished the balustrade with four coats of off-white paint, which had been matched to it’s historic colour.

In August 2024 the team refitted the balustrading into the new stonework on site, rivetting the joints and touching up paintwork where necessary. We were rewarded with this lovely message from our clients who was really pleased with the end result: 

“Ironart knew instinctively what we needed to achieve with our railing restorations, on what was quite a tricky Grade II listed project. The whole team from office to workshop delivered a stunning result which we are delighted with. I recommend them without reservation.”