Alan restores the Victorian cloches

On walking into the walled garden with Des Cotton the head gardener, he showed me a number of Victorian cloches that had seen better days. They had been left out in all weathers open to the elements and it was obvious after a closer inspection they were in need of immediate attention we took two of them straight to the workshop so the project could commence.

Over the winter period, each Thursday being my volunteer day, I would set about the necessary stages of removing the old putty and glass panels, to clean the old glass and cut reclaimed glass to replace the panes that had been broken. Before the cast iron frames could be re-glazed they had to be scraped and brushed to remove all the previous paint. After some consideration on the materials to replace the glass panes, I decided traditional putty was not the route to take because of the frosts had lifted the putty away from the frames. So the material I used instead was a water based window sealant, this would give a greater adhesion and allow for seasonal temperature fluctuation holding the glass sections into place for a longer period of time and with the glazing bars being so shallow the glass would bed far better.

Christmas had come and gone by now and we were on the next stage of putting the cloches back together. The weather had picked up with the workshop feeling a little warmer, ready for the glazing work to start. This I did and all went smoothly. Once glazed to our good fortune the weather picked up greatly, with some early spring sunshine, just in time for painting the frames. They were given three coats of paint and this seemed to have covered well giving a good finish.  One other little item that needed cleaning were the copper split pins, this was easily resolved by putting them into a small glass jar of vinegar for a week. Then washing them off, re-shaping them and they were ready for pinning the four base sections together. All the glass sections were then cleaned in and out with the handle just to paint.

It was now ready to be placed into the walled garden, but only before my wife, Sue had baked a cake to celebrate the completion of the project which we all shared at lunch in the gardener’s bothy.