The build at Hayle Heritage Centre’s historic Drawing Office is moving on well, even if it looks like slow progress from the outside.
The building’s timber frame has been carefully exposed, section by section; we have repaired all the water‑damaged timber, added extra structural timber where needed, and all 11 windows have been carefully repaired.
We are preparing the building for its new façade: a beautiful, traditional Cornish lime plaster. Once the structural steelwork arrives, the team will start fixing the hand‑made laths in place. That’s where the 23,000 nails come in; every single one will be tapped in by hand, the same way it would have been done generations ago.
We are so grateful to Historic England for the grant that has allowed us to undertake this work with our contractor, Melvin Construction Limited, to save this nationally significant timber building, where pioneering engineers such as Richard Trevithick, William West and Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed some of the world’s greatest feats of engineering.
Once completed, we’ll be one step closer to reopening John Harvey House as a new museum for the community.
