Restoring the Victorian Dome at Broughton Hall

Broughton Hall, a few miles west of Skipton, has been home to the Tempest family for a thousand years. In 1853 they added one of the great glasshouses of the Victorian age: a domed conservatory of stone, iron and curved glass, designed by the Bradford architects Andrews and Delaunay as part of W. A. Nesfield's new formal gardens. It was placed with real deliberation, set directly opposite the front door of the Hall so that its light carries straight through into the entrance hall. The conservatory is Grade I listed along with the house.

By the time our workshop was entrusted with the dome, it had stood for more than 130 years. Recreating curved glasswork of that ambition, faithfully to the original, was the making of the firm's reputation. Nothing about a building of this importance leaves room for approximation. Every section had to answer to the 1853 drawings and to an estate where the family had looked after the structure themselves for generations.

The restored conservatory was showcased at the Chelsea Flower Show in 1990, where it took the Gold Medal. It still crowns the gardens at Broughton today, and was later featured in Country Life's survey of Britain's great Victorian glasshouses.

Work of this kind is rare, and it is a large part of why we are trusted with listed and period buildings. The curved glazing and hand-run sections we developed at Broughton still sit behind the glasshouses we build now.