Here at Period Mouldings, we are big believers of the conservation of moulding creations, and the appreciation of the multitude of period buildings that surround us; which is why the renovation of York Railway Station has still to this day, got to be one of our favourite projects.
As seen in the image above, York historically had two railway stations – the one on the left, which most of us in our lifetime would have at least seen, if not passed through, and the original one circled on the right, which we would not recognise as part of the station today. Working alongside the team at Miller Construction, Period Mouldings was tasked with coming up with the exact replicas of the skirting boards, architraves, dado rails and picture rails all found in the original building. Not a small task, but at the end of the day, nothing excites us more than seeing period buildings restored to their true beauty.
Now for something like this it isn’t just as simple as replicating moulds and running it through the workshop, so the team sat down and decided to divide the project into two categories. In the first category skirting boards and architraves were produced as they had been originally in the traditional way, and in the second, we employed modern manufacturing techniques to replicate the mouldings in a more cost effective manner.
After full review of the site it was established that 6 key patterns of skirting, 3 patterns of architrave and 2 patterns of dado rails and picture rails were required. The work was then undertaken.
Whenever we take on a bespoke mouldings project, be it for historical buildings like the one in York or for residential properties such as a Victorian terrace, we try to make the process as efficient as possible. Clients simply send us their requirements, we create a CAD drawing for authorisation and then upon approval, the mouldings are manufactured.
For the York project it was critical that all the items matched perfectly, so in order to ensure their truest match we ran sample lengths to compare to the original, in addition to authorising the requirements through Millers Construction. This care and attention seemed to be appreciated by the client, especially since they were also dealing with both city planners and English Heritage. Our efforts seemed to have helped make sure there was a comfortable transition to the completion of the remedial works – something that those operating within the conservation industry are aware is no small feat.
The final result was a range of wood mouldings either in keeping with or a perfect match with the rest of the original building’s mouldings. With the beauty of York’s original station restored, we are delighted to say we had a helping hand in finishing off the final touches York city council’s new headquarters; and although we make our mouldings to the best quality, our storage of designs on our database gives our clients the reassurance and peace of mind that if required, more quantities of any one of these mouldings can be manufactured in the future with only one simple phone call.
So, while some may see the centralisation of York City Council’s services as misdirected investment in times of austerity, we think that the use of the building to house a showpiece of what York is and what it can offer is a fitting testament to one of the most important industrial buildings in the city.