About Minerva
Our Directors, Andrew Ziminski and Andrew Sharland, met in the early 1990s whilst attending the Postgraduate Stone Conservation course at Weymouth College in Dorset and went on to gain further experience by working for Salisbury Cathedral Works Department.
Our company development continued
in 1998 when Andrew Ziminski was awarded a William Morris Craft Fellowship
by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. This advanced training
scheme, designed originally to train future Clerks of Works gave Andrew
a unique insight into the most sympathetic repair techniques to historic
buildings.
Since establishing Minerva Stone Conservation we have worked as the principal
contractor on a large number of projects, including:
- Work to restore the cascade and serpentine lake at Prior Park Landscape
Garden in Bath for the National Trust.
- Recording and rebuilding of many sections of the medieval Malmesbury
town defences and packhorse bridges.
- Lottery-funded masonry works to the Kennet and Avon Canal at Bath
- Work for English Heritage-funded projects such as at Muchelney Abbey,
a Preaching Cross at Wick St Lawrence in Somerset and St Stephens Church,
Lansdown, Bath,
- Work on many redundant churches for the Churches Conservation Trust
- Conservation of thirty 18th century Chest Tombs in the churchyard of West Lavington, Wiltshire.
- Extensive repairs to the medieval pack horse bridge in Bradford on Avon
for Wiltshire County Council.
Education
We annually host SPAB Fellows and Scholars (craftsmen and architects respectively).
Our directors sit on the panel of the FDSC Applied Architctural Stonework
Advisory Panel at Weymouth College.
We are also invited to speak publicly, for example, at Architectural Heritage
Days at Kingston Lacy and Corfe Castle in Dorset we have had the opportunity
to talk to public about the conservation of historic buildings and specifically
the techniques we employ and materials we use which are crucial for maintaining
the happy equilibrium of an old building. We enjoyed demonstrating plastering
on to lath and masonry skills such as letter cutting and architectural
stone carving and look forward to returning again in future years.
Media
Whilst working at a redundant church in Luffincott, Cornwall for the Churches
Conservation Trust we were invited to take part in the BBC's Restoration
programme. Minerva appeared in a feature in the South West's episode
looking at traditional building materials and crafts such as sheet lead
roofing, lime plastering and stonemasonry.
[see video clip here]
Training
Minerva is committed to the concept of training. It is a part of every
supervisor’s and manager’s job to identify the training needs of their
employees and plan for training tasks. The majority of Minerva staff
have or are currently undertaking formal training of one sort or another,
One of our team will this year be attending a one week intensive Traditional
Masonry Course in the Saxon area of Transylvania, Romania. The site chosen
is a live project, the house number 344 in the Saxon village of Laslea.
This is one of the biggest houses of the village, which was about to
be demolished three years ago due to its structural problems.
Over the last few years the house has been restored by local craftsmen
with the help of The Mihai Eminescu Trust. (with whom director Andrew Sharland
has worked in the past).
Apprenticeship Scheme
Minerva recruits an apprentice every year working towards NVQ level 3 Banker
Masonry. Training programmes are balanced between workshop and site based
training, so that experience is given in all aspects of stonemasonry,
conservation and the lime work. Periods of training are carried out at
a stone masonry college.







