Flint/brick wall repointing and consolidation, Great Yarmouth Town Wall, Blackfriars' Rd.

Location: Great Yarmouth Town Wall, Blackfriars' Rd., Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

Date: April 2015

Activity / Result

The Great Yarmouth Town wall is a scheduled ancient monument, and according to Pevsner is: 'extraordinarily complete, and extraordinarily little known by the summer visitor'. Work may have started in about 1285, and went on till the end of the 14th century. The area worked on in this project is located at the far south end of the wall and consists of many different examples of workmanship, some original, but some Victorian or even later repairs. Much of the original faced flint has fallen away, and has been replaced with a modern cement based kind of ‘vertical crazy paving’. As this area was originally the site of the town curing works, the wall is heavily saturated with salt.

During this project the wall has been consolidated with a lime mortar, filling holes and cracks, as well as repointing large areas on ground level. Heavy salt deposits appeared on the newly pointed areas, so care had to be taken not to use too much moisture to prevent salt mobilisation.