The Gelder Group has secured a new contract marking a special collaboration between the construction business and Lincoln Cathedral.
The company will further expand at its headquarters, to build a stone-cutting facility, which will provide tailored stone to keep the city’s world-famous Cathedral in great shape for centuries to come.
Gelder Group CEO Steve Gelder said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for both parties. The new centre will house modern equipment for future Cathedral projects, starting with the second stage of its Chapter house project.
“The centre will boost efficiencies for the Cathedral and reduce costs because of its ability to cut pieces of stone to size, thereby reducing wastage to virtually zero.
“Lincoln Cathedral is the only Cathedral to be listed in its entirety on English Heritage’s At Risk register, so we are really proud that the new centre will support this vital work and also the Cathedral’s drive to promote heritage skills.”
Work on the new centre began in January and the facility will be available to the Cathedral by way of a 20-year lease.
Lincoln Cathedral Director of Estates and Facilities Mark Wheater said that following phase two of the Chapter House project, future work is waiting in the wings.
“We have an over-arching 50-year plan and then a five-year plan of works. Maintaining the building and promoting the heritage skills needed to conserve it are huge priorities for us. The new facility means we are able to cut pieces of stone to size, rather than buying pre-cut blocks and then trimming them down.
“This will be much more cost-effective for us, with the ability to handle much larger pieces of stone. We will also be installing solar panels with battery storage to make the development as sustainable as possible.”
The Very Reverend Dr Simon Jones, Dean of Lincoln said: “This partnership with Gelder Group to create a bespoke cutting facility is a vital step in our commitment to conserving the built heritage of Lincoln Cathedral in a financially and environmentally sustainable way.
“The Cathedral has stood as a beacon on the skyline of Lincoln for almost 1,000 years, and one of our greatest daily challenges to ensure that it does so for many more centuries to come.
“The cutting facility will also support our reputation as a centre of excellence for heritage skills by providing our craftspeople with the literal building blocks to continue to conserve this internationally important building for the future, and ensure that these vital skills continue to be shared with the next generation of stonemasons.”
