Bell's Cathedrals: St. David's

by Philip A. Robson

“ ‘It will be seen from what I have stated, that the whole remaining portion of the first tower is crushed and left at the mercy of the various walls which abut against, and, so to speak, bolster it up; and that this terrible failure extends itself to a certain distance into the later and, in themselves, better constructed portions; in fact, that of the four supports of the tower, two are sound, and two wholly untrustworthy.’

“It will be seen from the above, that the object to be aimed at was little (if anything) less than the rebuilding from their foundation of two of the four piers which sustained the tower, each of them bearing a load of 1,150 tons, which had to be supported by timber shoring during the operation.

“Our first work, however, was to take measures for binding together, and otherwise strengthening the tower itself, so as to avoid the danger of its becoming fractured, or otherwise injured, during the reconstruction of its supporting piers; and this was rendered the more necessary by the disintegrated state of the lower walls immediately resting on the arches, and the enormous cracks by which the north and south walls were rent throughout their entire height. This object was attained by the introduction of permanent iron ties of great strength, at several different levels, binding all the walls together; by the use of temporary girders of massive timber-work round the exterior of the tower, throughout the greater part of its height; and by repairing with new stone and strong cement many parts of the disintegrated walls.

“The shoring by which the weight of the western half of the tower has been temporarily supported is of three descriptions—1st, direct supports under the western, northern, and southern arches (the two former consisting of timber framing, and the latter being provided by an old stone wall, by which the arch was blocked); 2ndly, vertical shores of immense strength, supporting “needles,” or horizontal masses of timber, passing through the walls; and 3rdly, by ‘raking’ or inclined shores abutting against the walls in all directions, and both supporting weight and preventing lateral motion. All these had to be provided with firm foundations, having to bear the actual weight of the tower. The magnitude of the work may be judged of when I mention that, of the six main supports of the ‘needles,’ two consisted each of nine, and the others of six full-sized balks of timber, bound together into one mass by irons, and thus making timber supports, the first 3 feet 6 inches square, and the others 3 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 4 inches in thickness, and all of them 36 feet in length. The ‘needles’ are of oak, 2 feet 4 inches deep and 2 feet 4 inches thick, and shod with wrought iron. The raking shores are arranged in systematic groups, giving supports at all heights, from immediately over the piers to nearly the top of the tower.

“The shoring has required the use of nearly 12,000 cubic feet of timber.

“The state of the west wall of the tower was rendered alarmingly apparent by the difficulties encountered in making the holes for the ‘needles.’

“Mr. Clear, the Clerk of the Works, and myself, foreseeing some difficulty, arranged a plan by which, before cutting through the wall, a sort of tunnel of strong stone should be formed through it, by inserting the stones, one at a time, in the shattered rubble work, and then removing the enclosed wall. This was done, with some difficulty, to a depth of 2 feet from either side, but as the wall is 6 feet thick, there remained 2 feet in the middle untunnelled, and when the enclosed wall was attempted to be removed, the middle mass began to pour out like an avalanche, which was only stopped by the immediate insertion of sand-bags, and by subsequently running the wall from above with liquid cement, and thus solidifying the disintegrated rubbish.

“These systems of supports having been completed, the actual operations commenced, and for this another and less permanent system of shoring was requisite. If the main shoring may be compared to the solid masses of an army, those I am now speaking of may be viewed as the skirmishers. They consist of needles and props inserted immediately above the part to be operated on, and supporting a portion of the shattered pier while that below it was renewed, and as soon as this was effected, a new needle was inserted above the first one, to make way for the renewal of another batch, each lower needle being in its turn removed, when that above it was secured. Besides this, however, endless extemporised precautions had at every hour to be taken, to provide against contingencies which were ever arising; blocks of timber inserted under stones threatening to fall; struts and shields against masses in danger of bursting; sand-bags, &c., against the rushing out of the avalanches of rubbish; temporarily running together, with liquid cement, of parts which, though eventually to be removed, had not yet been reached, and threatened, if not consolidated, to bury the workmen in their ruins. All these, and many more precautions, had to be taken to meet the exigencies of every day and every hour; and when it is considered that each pier took months to reinstate, that these dangerous operations could not, in many cases, be suspended day or night, and that the Clerk of the Works would never leave the spot while any dangerous work was pending, you may judge of the wearing anxiety which he and others engaged in the work have undergone.

“By the process I have thus briefly sketched, the entire piers, excepting a small central portion, have been rebuilt from their foundations to their capitals; the new stone-work having to be inserted a little at a time, has been aided, in all cases, by strong copper cramps, so as to tie its courses together in their circuit round the pier.

“All the stones are laid in strong cement, and all that remains within of the old work is run together at each course with liquid cement till it will hold no more. I saw, myself, ten pails full of this material poured into a single hole.