Savills |

6 / 36

6 | aspects of land | spring / summer 2017
NEWS AND VIEWS
iSTOCK
KEY STORIES FROM THE RURAL SECTOR
When floods devastated parts
of Cumbria in 2015, they
washed away the banks of the
River Derwent at the foot of
Cockermouth Castle, leaving
the historic building in danger
of sliding into the river.
The castle is on the
Leconfield Estate, which is
managed by Charles Baker
of Savills Rural Estate
Management. He realised the
severity of the situation and
immediately called inMark
Watt of Savills Rural Building
Surveying. Here Mark
recounts the complex process
of saving a piece of history:
“ W e did some
emergency work
to reinstate the
river bank, but then we had to
look at the more permanent
job of stopping the rest of the
hillside from slipping away.
The castle is a listed building
and a scheduled ancient
monument, and the river bank
sits in a Site of Special Scientific
Interest. So there were lots of
agencies involved and consents
needed. Plus it wasn’t an easy
site to access and the castle was
in a precarious position.Then, of
course, we came across invasive
species Himalayan balsam
which had to be dealt with.
The key to everything was
assembling the right team. I
called in some geotechnical
A green mesh that will be sprayed with hydroseed mix will eventually give the slope a natural look
HOW TO SAVE
A CASTLE…
CASTING FOR A CAUSE
STARTS THIS SEASON
Savills is proud to be supporting
Marie Curie’s Casting for a
Cause fundraising initiative.
Casting for a Cause
encourages keen fishermen or
women, or those with fishing on
their land, to run charity events
and competitions to raise money
and awareness for Marie Curie
Nursing services. The charity
supports people living with a
terminal illness.
Fundraising can range from
fishing competitions, to riverside
picnics or a charity raffle.
n To take part, visit mariecurie.
Could you fish to fundraise?
engineers I’d worked with
previously and a structural
engineer and we drilled some
boreholes and conducted slope
stability assessments and a
topographical survey.
Looking at the different
solutions available, we
established that soil nailing
would fix the ground in the
safest way possible.The nails
are 9 metres and 12 metres long
and are driven into the ground
at a 20° angle, and positioned
so that they don’t disturb the
dungeons under the castle.
We worked across the slope
so we were never in a potential
slip zone and monitored
everything very closely so that
when there was some movement
in the castle buttresses after
heavy rain, we stopped work for
a couple of days to assess and to
give it time to settle.
It took eight weeks to fix
the nails in wanted
the end result to look natural,
so there is a green mesh across
the slope and we’ll apply a
hydroseed mix in the spring.
It was a complex piece of
work, but successful. And in a
few months when the vegetation
grows back, you won’t even
know the landslip happened.”
n Charles Baker, Carlisle, 01228
554 221,
n Mark Watt, Darlington, 01325
370 422,
ABOVE Repair work underway. BELOW The view after the landslide