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Context Engineering Conservation Services

Conservation of Metals, Machinery, Country House Technology & Historic Ordnance

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11 Apr 2025

Context Engineering offers wide-ranging conservation expertise to public and private clients across the UK, particularly where a practical and problem-solving approach is needed.  

We are not a typical conservation practice. Our projects are eclectic: from a medieval sewage pump to 20th century ordnance; from a bronze key to a complete watermill; and from a simple cast iron fireback to a 410-needle net-making machine. Although specialising in metalwork, our conservation work also includes wood, leather and rope.

As appropriate, work can be carried out in situ or in our Workshop and, if the client wishes, in situ work can be undertaken as a visitor engagement opportunity. We are happy to train staff and volunteers to undertake ongoing collection care work and will provide supervision and advice going forward on these projects.

We also carry out:

  • collection condition assessments
  • the replication of historic objects for handling, use or display
  • the design, installation and testing of picture rails and hanging systems in historic interiors
  • the design and build of specialist packing cases
  • the handling and transport of heavy and/or complex objects
  • consultancy  

Our main clients are the National Trust, English Heritage, Historic Royal Palaces and London Transport Museum.

Our philosophy is simple: context and collaboration are key. We provide high-quality, cost-effective, considered and practical solutions based around the object in its setting, and our clients’ needs and resources.

Metalwork survey, conservation and replication

Context Engineering conserves a range of ferrous and non-ferrous metals used in historic machinery, cooking and heating equipment, weathervanes, gates and railings, locks and door furniture.  We undertake patternmaking of missing elements and source high-quality castings, as well as accurately replicating architectural metalwork where needed (e.g. zinc ventilators for Windsor Castle and portico railings for Y Gaer, Brecon).

We undertake wind and watermill repairs on metalwork and structural woodwork for the National Trust and private clients and have built, from scratch, the machinery of the only working watermill in the Brecon Beacons National Park at Talgarth.   

We undertake condition surveys of metalwork, machinery and transport collections.

In 2005 we were presented with the ICON Award for Conservation for our conservation work on the zinc and barytes processing machinery at the National Trust’s Force Crag Mine in Cumbria. 

Country house technology

Context Engineering specialises in the conservation of country house technology and is regularly commissioned by the National Trust, Historic Royal Palaces, English Heritage and private clients. We have conserved, repaired, restored to working order and, in some cases, replicated:

  • ranges and cooking equipment
  • locks
  • lighting
  • servants’ bell systems
  • water closets
  • speaking tubes
  • wooden roller shutters
  • water pumps and rams

We also undertake country house technology surveys. Tim Martin of Context Engineering was co-author of the country house technology chapter in the ‘National Trust Manual of Housekeeping’ (2006).

Historic ordnance

Between 2019 and 2025 Context Engineering held the contract with English Heritage to maintain its collection of historic ordnance across 20+ sites. The work undertaken has included:

  • annual general maintenance (paint repairs)
  • dismantling and fully re-painting barrels and carriages
  • full gun conservation in a Workshop setting
  • in situ repairs to wooden carriages
  • making completely new wooden carriages and gun decks
  • improving visitor safety by roping down guns and object security by designing and installing security brackets

Tim Martin of Context Engineering holds both a Firearms Dealer’s Licence and Authority from the Home Office to handle, work on and transport Section 5 Firearms.  

Picture rails and lifting systems

A failed picture rail can have disastrous and expensive consequences. Context Engineering has significant experience in test-loading, repairing and strengthening historic rails and their fixings for Historic Royal Palaces and the National Trust. New sympathetic rails and fixings can be designed and installed as part of re-presentation projects, or where a room has previously had none.

Chandelier and other historic lighting winches and fixings can be inspected and remedial work undertaken for LOLER and insurance purposes. Portcullises, dumb waiters, roller shutters and ordnance lifts are also covered by the services we offer as we work in chain, swaged or spliced wire, and rope. 

Object handling & transport

Context Engineering is a problem-solving conservation practice. How do you get a very expensive car up a staircase into an exhibition space without scratching it when it is too wide to fit through the doors? On its side of course! We have moved 5 cars for the Victoria and Albert Museum this way.

We are experienced in the safe dismantling, handling and transport of historic ordnance, vehicles and machinery, and can design and build specialist frames and packing cases, either for transport or storage.

We have our own range of lifting and moving equipment including gantry cranes, scaffolding, jacks, and machinery and compressed air skates.

Overshot waterwheel, Felin Rhyd-hir, North Wales

Overshot waterwheel, Felin Rhyd-hir, North Wales

Project to re-build an overshot waterwheel for a private client in North Wales. Following research and over a period of 13 years, working to the client’s timetable, the missing shaft, spokes and buckets were replaced and the winged gudgeon re-machined.

Original and replica copper galleon held side-by-side, Portmeirion, North Wales

Original and replica copper galleon held side-by-side, Portmeirion, North Wales

Project to make a replica of a 1920s copper galleon and to install it on the sea wall in Portmeirion Village, 2019-2020. Context Engineering had undertaken two sessions of conservation repair on this object before the final decision was made by the client to commission a replica and ‘retire’ the original into their museum.

Mercury rectifier, The Picture House, Campbeltown, Scotland

Mercury rectifier, The Picture House, Campbeltown, Scotland

Project to conserve for display a very rare piece of electrical history: a rectifier used to create DC electricity to run cinema projectors. This rectifier presented additional challenges in its conservation and display with a pool of 12-14oz of mercury in the vacuum glass. We also designed the display cabinet to be bunded.

Range, Lyddington Bede House, Rutland (English Heritage)

Range, Lyddington Bede House, Rutland (English Heritage)

This was the most complete surviving range in the Grade I listed building. It had distorted due to corrosion and was missing the oven door on the left. The project involved piecing back together the open grate and brickwork and making a new cast iron oven door.

Roller shutter, Brodsworth Hall, nr Doncaster (English Heritage)

Roller shutter, Brodsworth Hall, nr Doncaster (English Heritage)

Prior to the project starting, the ground floor of Victorian Brodsworth House was in almost total darkness with only one or two of the 1860s wooden roller shutters covering the windows fully functioning. This had been caused by the deterioration of the wooden slats and the leather straps attached to the counterweights. Historic repairs with inappropriate materials had also left the shutters unbalanced.

WAS Benson table lamp, Lotherton Hall, Leeds (Leeds City Council)

WAS Benson table lamp, Lotherton Hall, Leeds (Leeds City Council)

Initially this project involved the sensitive re-wiring of the lamp to confirm to IEE Regulations. Research identified missing copper foliage and revealed that the glass globe shades were not part of the original design and were making the lamp unstable. Appropriate silk shades were commissioned to match those in WAS Benson catalogues, leaves were repaired and new shade cup leaves made and installed alongside silk-covered conforming electric cable.

Tudor sewage pump, Hampton Court Palace, Surrey (Historic Royal Palaces)

Tudor sewage pump, Hampton Court Palace, Surrey (Historic Royal Palaces)

This is the earliest piece of engineering Context Engineering has worked on. We conserved the surviving chain, wood discs and metal cotters, and designed, built, and installed its display stand after moving the 5m long pump to a new location within the palace.

Bofors Anti-Aircraft gun, Pendennis Castle, Cornwall (English Heritage)

Bofors Anti-Aircraft gun, Pendennis Castle, Cornwall (English Heritage)

This type of gun was in use at Pendennis from the 1930s to the 1950s. Full conservation was carried out on this gun which had been left exposed to the harshest of marine environments. It remains fully functional but with the loading mechanism removed and stored separately, as it was necessary to maintain manoeuvrability of both the barrel and gun deck to ensure regular routine maintenance could be carried out.

32-pdr gun carriages, Upnor Castle, Kent (English Heritage)

32-pdr gun carriages, Upnor Castle, Kent (English Heritage)

This project involved detailed measuring and drawing of the existing rotten carriages several years before their actual replication, while details were still extant. After 125 years of extreme exposure, they finally became too dangerous to remain on display. We were able to make copies (one a garrison carriage, the other a ship’s carriage) using opepe and re-using some of the original ironwork that had survived. The guns are now back on display at Upnor.

Open-frame cast iron cannon and carriages, Walmer Castle, Kent (English Heritage)

Open-frame cast iron cannon and carriages, Walmer Castle, Kent (English Heritage)

Alongside the conservation of cannons and carriages Context Engineering makes wooden tompions to fit into the muzzle of the barrel to help keep the barrel interior dry and to prevent rubbish being put down the guns. Where needed, we also rope barrels down to stop them being tipped and use rope grommets to help stop the guns being moved.

Load testing picture rails, Petworth House, West Sussex (National Trust)

Load testing picture rails, Petworth House, West Sussex (National Trust)

We are regularly involved in testing historic fittings for hanging pictures and subsequently replacing or reinforcing them to cope with building defects, ever-denser picture hangs and heavier paintings due to glazing, new frames, etc.

Failing 1904 wire rope joint on 70Kg lantern, Powis Castle, Powys (National Trust)

Failing 1904 wire rope joint on 70Kg lantern, Powis Castle, Powys (National Trust)

We regularly assess historic lifting equipment for chandeliers and lanterns and undertake work that does not alter the object’s aesthetics but does conform to current safety requirements.

Tiki Love Truck being installed for ‘Disobedient Objects’ in the V&A Museum, London (V&A)

Tiki Love Truck being installed for ‘Disobedient Objects’ in the V&A Museum, London (V&A)

The Tiki Love Truck is an example of an unconventional art object that needed lifting to be on its side and then taken up a staircase to get it into the exhibition space at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The bespoke frame was also used to provide protection for the object during the exhibition build around it.

Queen Victoria’s bathing hut, Osborne House, Isle of Wight (English Heritage)

Queen Victoria’s bathing hut, Osborne House, Isle of Wight (English Heritage)

Queen Victoria’s bathing hut sited on the beach at Osborne needed to be removed into storage for a thorough survey and conservation assessment to take place. Due to its extreme display environment, extensive rot had set in.

Waterwheel shaft on the move, Acorn Bank, Cumbria (National Trust)

Waterwheel shaft on the move, Acorn Bank, Cumbria (National Trust)

A bespoke solution to move a 900Kg wooden waterwheel shaft to manoeuvre it through a building and over soft terrain to its re-installation point inaccessible by crane. At the front is a cannon barrel moving bogey and, at the rear, a muck-truck to give control whilst manoeuvring.

Accredited members

Tim Martin ACR

Tim Martin ACR

Initially trained as a building surveyor, and with an RICS Diploma in Building Conservation, Tim has been working in the field of conservation for nearly 40 years and founded Context Engineering in 1994. He is a Mentor and CPD Reader for ICON. As a result of his work on historic ordnance, he has a Firearms’ Dealer’s Licence and Authority from the Home Office to work on and transport Section 5 firearms. He is Trustee and Secretary of the International Guild of Knot Tyers (IGKT); a Vice-President of the Coultershaw Trust (historic beam pump) and a voluntary consultant millwright for Talgarth Watermill.

 

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