Wellington Monument

Campbell Smith & Co have a long history of working with English Heritage on the Estates of the Dukes of Wellington, including Apsley House in London and Statfield Saye, the family’s country seat near Reading.

Our specialists recently completed the conservation cleaning and re-gilding of lettering to the plinth at the base of the Wellington Monument. The monument is one of many which commemorates Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke, and is sited at the entrance to the Stratfield Saye Estate, which was presented to the Duke by a grateful nation after his direction of the British Army at the momentous defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Where the monument is set in a green and leafy environment, the granite plinth had become algae and lichen covered, and thorough preparation was required to clean the substrate prior to the renewal of the gilding, which was undertaken using oil size double thickness 23.5k gold leaf.