296 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Sept. 



RESTORATION OF DYMCHURCII, KENT. 

 (From the Journal of the British Jrcliaeohrjical Associatior>) 



Tl'is church ^Tas no longer than five-and-twenty years since, a veiy pretty 

 sppcimen of Norman : indeed Hasted speaks of the arch in the tower as 

 pecuharly worthy of attention. Independently of this, the chancel arch 

 is one of a strikingly hold character, and of veiy liigh anticiuily, whilst the 

 Eonthern entrance was once adorned with a very chaste specuuen of the 

 same style. The first of these is of course preserved from all danger of ex- 

 ternal violence hy a boniitiful application of whitewash; and the latter, 

 vhcn the church was enlarged and beautified, had an erection placed in 

 front, which tlie butchers and graziers facetiously pronounce an elegant 

 porch ; and only by a careful inspection can the cntline of the old rounded 

 arch, with its chevrons and chevronels. he detected The enlargement con- 

 sisted in pulling down one side of the nave and extending it, so as to form 

 a square ugly ham ; the semicircular arches of tl;e windows, springing from 

 light columns, which erstwhile retained much of the Norman character, hav- 

 ing been compelled to yield to tlie liumped-hacked gothic, the produce of 

 some village carpenter ; 'whilst the venerable Norman font was uncerimoni- 

 oiislv depo'sed and converted into a pig-trough, its pedestal into a stepping 

 stone to a granary ; and a marble mortar, with an inverted wooden bowl for 

 a cover, rei^gncd , on a garden roller placed on end, iu its stead. 



These abominations, thanks to the able co-operation of iHr. Elliott, 

 quickened by the appeals of the Archaeological Association, have, I am 

 liappy to say, been, as far as practical, cleansed. Of course the church hav- 

 ing been enlarged on the dieap conventicle principle, can never be restored 

 to its pristine beauty; but the old font has been recovered, and the mortar 

 returned to its ancient pestle ; the whitewash has been removed from a por- 

 tion of the arches, in one of which was discovered the elegant top of the 

 thurible recently exhibited to the society. The chancel rails have been 

 erected in the proper position, and a niche or priscina restored on the south 

 side of the altar. Independent of this, a vestry, in strict conformity with the 

 aid building, having a plain Norman arched door leading from the chancel, 

 has been erected, at the instance of the curate, entirely by the exertions, and 

 in no little degree at the charge of Mr. Elliott ; and when the rector shall 

 have performed his part, by repairing the chancel, it is to be hoped the un- 

 seemly altar-piece, with its hieroglyphic, will be removed, and the small 

 eastern window once more admit the earliest rays of the sun w ithin the walls 

 of the sacred edifice. 



FALL OF THE RAILWAY VIADUCT AT ASHTON LAST APRIL. 



Frcm the "Manchester Guardian" of May 3, 1815, we glean the following 

 particulars of the fall of the railway viaduct. On the Manchrsier and Shef- 

 field Railway is a branch line to Stalybridge, vhich passes over the river 

 Tame, near Ashton, on a viaduct of nine arclies. This viaduct fell whilst 

 letwecn 20 and 30 workmen were upon it engaged in filling up the spandrils 

 cf the arches for the permanent way, on I'JlIi April last, when 15 persons 

 verp killed and several olhers wounded. Inquests were held on the 21st of 

 April, and an adjournment arranged to allow time to jirocure ihe evidence of 

 disinterested scienlific men as to ihe causes of the giving way of ihe arches. 

 At the adjourned inquest, held on the 30ih of April, a joint report of Mr. 

 Kf.niucl Holme of Liverpool, Mr. David Bellhouse and Mr. Thomas Lee of 

 Manchester, was read and received as evidence. Aflrr giving particulars of 

 the examination of llie ruins, and as to the possibility of the cause of Ihe 

 Eccident being occasioned by the giving way of an old coal drift as inferred, 

 the report proceeds : — 



"It having been represented to us that it was possible that the accident 

 liad occurred through the sinking of some portion of the ground upon 

 which ihe viaduct stood, and under which, many years ago, a coal drift had 

 leen driven, we took especial notice of ihe appearance of the land in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of the structure. At 27 feet distant from (he sixth pier of 

 tlie viaduct is a mill of 4 stories high, the gable wall standing in line with 

 the end of the pier. This gable has been built at two periods, one portion of 

 it being of stone and the other of brick, and a vertical joint is visible frcm the 

 Ijottom to the top where the junction takes place ; not ilie slightest separa- 

 tion is visible in this joint. Below this pier is the goit whicli supplies the 

 waler-wl.eel of an adjoining mill ; had any subsidence of the ground occurred 

 it must necessarily have altered the level of the goit and feeder, togetherwith 

 tlie overflow weir, but they remain as before. About two years ago Mr. Lee 

 took the sections of this land previous to the formation of the railway, and 

 on comdaring the present surface with the original survey, which will be pio- 

 «luced, it appears that not the slightest alteration of the surface line has taken 

 place. We arc decidedly of opinion that the cause of the accident has been 

 the collapse of one of the piers, from its improper and most inc fficient con- 

 .struction ; and we are led to this conclusion by discovering that they are 

 vantirg in all those essentials which are requisite to constitute solidity, and 

 to resist the weight which had necessarily to be discharged upon them. The 

 rubble stone fiUiiig together with the improper workmanship were alike un- 



fitted for the purposes to which they were destined; and when it is known 

 that the piers weie erected wiih an outer shell of small ashlar stone, and 

 that the whole of the interior was a mass of rubble and scabblings, neither 

 bedded with care, nor flushed, nor grouted, 1 :ut full of interstices, and, that 

 in addition to all this, it di es not appear (with the e.vception of two small 

 stones which seem to have leen inserted accidentaily and not from design,) 

 that there was a single binding couise throughout any of tlie piers, no prac- 

 tical man can have any difliculty in perceiving the cause cf this melancholy 

 catastrophe. We li. d no means of e-xamining any portion of the backing of 

 the arches, except that on the abutments ; but while we think that it would 

 have Leen much safer to have had the backing carried much higher, or 

 spandril walls introduced, we are not inclired to attribute the accident to 

 tliis cause, aliheugh ihe want of more backing may have made it dangerous 

 to baUist the arches in an irregular manner. We found that the mortar had 

 not been made frcm river sand, but frcm sand taken out of a neighbouring 

 bank or cutting. Specimens of the mortar were taken promiscuously from all 

 parts of the work, and have been submitted to Mr. Davis, the eminent che- 

 mist, whose analyzation of the same will no doubt be laid before the jury. 

 AVc were induced to adopt this ceurse from observing that not the slightest 

 adhesion had taken place between the mortar and the masonry in any one 

 part, and that no difhculty existed in our pulling up any portion of the work 

 by hand, with the exception of the string-course and springing-stones, as 

 before described. Our attention was also directed to the stale of the bricks 

 which had formed the arches: these were not cf good quality, and it was 

 evident they had not been bound together by the mortar, as little cr none 

 adhered to them. 



" Wc cannot close this painful examination wilhout expressing our opinion 

 that great blame has been incurred, and that the accident has happened 

 throi;gli tlie inferiority both of the materials and workmanship. We refer 

 particularly to the construction of the piers, as these were totally insufficient 

 for sustaining the weight which had been placed vertically upon them. The 

 pressure could only act on the exterior casing ; for the interior portion did 

 not, in the slightest degree, contribute to their sirengih, and would not have 

 borne their own weight if the external casing had been removed from them. 

 The want of binders (bond stones}, also, to connect tlic two sides of the piers 

 together has been a most fatal error, and, painful as it is to us, we are com- 

 pelled lo stale, that in our opinion this accident would not have occurred had 

 the work been executed in a proper manner. 



"(Signed) " Samuel Holme, 



" D.wiD Bellhouse, 

 " Thomas Lee." 

 Mr. John Davies, practical and analytical chemist, gave the following 

 analysis c/f the mortar taken from the ruins. 



" 10, Quay Street, Manchester, Jpril 30, IS45. 

 " Sir,— I have subjected to chemical examination, as far as I presume is 

 necessary, and as far as my limited time would allow, several samples oJ 

 mortar which you sent me for that purpose. 



" The physical characters are sufficient to enable any person to estimate 

 the ineffieieney of the arlic'e. It is so exiremely friable that the slightest 

 pressure reduces it to powder, and the superabundance of sand is visible at 

 once to either the sense of touch or that of vision. I find that a number of 

 the samples, all of which appear to be pretty uniform in their constitution, 

 contain CS per cent of silica; now sand does not consist entirely of silica, 

 and therefore of tlie sand a larger proportion than that obtained as silica 

 must have been used in Ihe manufacture of the mortar. 



'Ihe quantity of caustic or real lime, is, on the average, about 8J per cent., 

 which is equivalent lo nearly 11 per cent, of the slacked or hydrate of that 

 earth. The mortar contains also alumina, iron, and perhaps other ingre- 

 dients, the amount and even the nature of which I have not had the oppor- 

 lunily of investigating, nor can they, I presume, be of importance in the 

 present enquiry. The results may be thus expressed : — 



"Silica 68 6S percent. 



"Lime So 8J percent. 



" Alumina, oxide of ircn, &:c 235 2SJ pec cent. 



100 



100 



" Or the silica is about eight times as much as the lime, and Ihe sand must, 

 as above explained, have been in greater proportion. 



•' (Signed) " John Davies." 



*^* We have read the specification of the engineer, which is carefully 

 drawn up, and if the structure had been erected according to its directions 

 there would uot have been any accident. — Ed. 



