Londonthorpe WW2 Firing Wall (July 2024)

Emma Teale, Senior Conservator, writes: Skillingtons were first asked in 2022 by the Woodland Trust to have a look at graffiti removal and brick repair at a WW2 firing wall in Alma Park Wood, part of Londonthorpe Woods, Grantham. This is a slightly unusual and interesting job for Skillington Workshop as it is 20^th century war time brickwork. The wall consists of curved wall with a central bay, the site of the butts or backstop that takes the impact after the bullet has passed through the target. You can still see miss-aimed bullet holes peppering the central bay, and some of the bolts that used to hang metal sheets used to protect the lower brickwork.

Londonthorpe firing wall before graffiti removal, 2024.

Londonthorpe firing wall after graffiti was removed, 2024. You can clearly see the bullet holes on the top two-thirds of the wall and the lower third unaffected by bullet strikes because of the now missing metal sheets.

The brick walls had been covered in lots of different spray paint graffiti, and any cleaning trials had to take into consideration the difficult logistics of getting materials and equipment to site.

Londonthorpe firing wall before conservation

After graffiti removal and showing deterioration of brick wall heads on the right-hand bay.

All of the brick wall heads had vegetation growing out of them and the soldier course of capping had degraded in places and had led to losses of the brickwork below. The right hand wall of the central bay especially had a lot of vegetation growing on the top of the wall and had a significant area of brick loss. This corner was built up using as much of the original material as possible to match the original height of the wall, following the same bond and to allow water to shed away from the back wall.

Brick repair of central bay side wall.

Finished brick repair of central bay side wall.

The firing wall was originally built in English bond, this is probably due to the fact that English bond is stronger than other types of brick bonds, and not for patriotic reasons!

There were also several areas of water damage to the face of the brick wall, these were grouted and capped to consolidate the fractured brick surfaces.

Conservator grouting fractured brickwork.

This work will prolong the life of the firing wall and allow people to appreciate the walls interesting history instead of the damage and graffiti.