Case Study: Church of St Peter and St Paul, Great Bowden, Leicestershire

Grade 1 listed. The first mention of a parish church in Great Bowden was in 1220. St Peter and St Paul, the current parish church, includes features from the 13th century, but it was considerably altered in the 15th century.

Scheme for stabilisation of North Aisle & Porch As a result of the close proximity of trees and the clay beneath the foundations the North Aisle and Porch had suffered from movement which required substantial structural stabilization works.

Any structural work had to consider that this building is of significant architectural value and as such must be treated as irreplaceable, not only as a whole but in each part and element of its construction. To ensure the long term stability of the North Aisle and porch it was decided that underpinning would be required subsequent to the installation of Cintec anchors. Structural Engineers PRP from Northampton carried out surveys, monitoring and designed the scheme which was approved by Historic
England and the Church authorities.

The anchor installation would ensure the minimization of structural movement during the underpinning operation and the long term adequacy of the superstructure which had already shown movement damage.

Additionally the presence of C15 medieval wall paintings to the internal surfaces of the external walls meant that extra care had to be taken while drilling the walls for the Cintec anchors.

For this reason dry drilling with diamond core drills was adopted along with suitable protection and regular inspection during drilling operations.