Albert Park – Middlesbrough
All that remained of the fabulous fountain in Albert Park, Middlesbrough was the lower bowl. However, all the pumping equipment etc was also missing.
Our historical research for the restoration of the fountain enabled us to identify the fountain as having been produced at the famous Coalbrookdale Foundry in the mid 19th Century.
Our archive research produced historic illustrations and photographic details of the fountain and also of similar fountains that were also produced at Coalbrookdale and are still in existence. In particular, the fountain shared a number of features in common with a fountain that we had restored in Redditch.
From these details and following site visits to existing fountains to identify components of existing fountains that were shared with the Albert Park fountain (Coalbrookdale produced fountains that were individual in appearance and construction, but would interchange component parts to achieve this) a working method was identified.
The replication and restoration of the Albert Park fountain involved a combination of taking liftings and dimensions from component parts of existing fountains, utilising component parts recovered from the original fountain, utilizing component parts from our own archive of patterns and component parts in addition to producing new patterns based on photographic evidence.
Starting from the base upwards and producing new castings, many of which were later gilded in 24 carat gold, we were able to restore the fountain to its former glory, with the eventually securing a nomination as one of the best fountains in the country.
As part of the same regeneration project, Lost Art Limited also recreated the original main gates at the park entrance, replacing a later and simpler pair that had been installed.
A number of our Teesdale benches were also supplied to the park. This is a particularly robust bench well suited to a challenging environment such as an urban park.
Finally, Lost Art also produced and installed our ‘Twisted Post Guard Rail’ around a number of the flower beds within the park. This was the first time that we had produced this particular item but we have since supplied considerable lengths of this railing to a number of restoration projects.
Project Description
The following examples of work conducted by Lost Art Limited will demonstrate that we have the experience, capacity and technical ability to undertake any type of restoration project involving historic landscape structures.
The whole process of the restoration work was documented on behalf of the Park’s Friends Group and is still available as a DVD which captures both the effort and skill that went into the whole process of restoring a particularly decorative piece of landscape furnishing.
A number of leading foundries were the main providers of fountains for public spaces, these include The Coalbrookdale Foundry, based in England and the Scottish Foundries of the MacFarlane and Sun Companies. Lost Art Limited retain catalogues and documents from each of these. It was often the case that, rather than installing fountains that were exact copies of those in their catalogues, companies, the components of previously produced fountains were combined to produce new designs that were unique to a particular location.
