Flash of inspiration over work on castle chimneys (From The Northern Echo)

Flash of inspiration over work on castle chimneys

12:19pm Thursday 6th November 2008 in

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A SURVEYING company known for its innovative photography methods has combined Victorian techniques with high technology for its latest project.

Survey Inspection Systems (SiS) was asked to provide video from inside a labyrinth of 18in wide chimney flues at one of Britain’s most historic castles.

The Spennymoor-based company came up with the idea of attaching a miniature camera to a chimney sweepstyle brush The idea worked perfectly as English Heritage undertook a £5m restoration of Dover Castle, in Kent.

SiS commercial director Phil Burgess said: “It was not so much the camera that was the issue, but the frame that holds it.

“We basically said what is good at going up and down chimneys and decided a chimney sweep brush is pretty effective.

“That was the start of the discussion, utilising Victorian technology and combining it with 21st Century camera technology.

“It worked far better than we expected. It was one of those few occasions you try something and it works first time.”

The finished model resembles a chimney brush and the “bristles” play another purpose, holding the camera’s position a fixed distance from the walls, while electronic controls enabled the camera to be rotated 360 degrees to provide an inch-by-inch video map.

The footage obtained at the castle is helping English Heritage determine the age of fireplaces and chimneys, while also assessing their condition.

It is also enabling researchers to establish historical accuracy as they attempt to meticulously present the internal appearance of the keep is as it would have looked during Henry II’s reign in the 12th Century.

English Heritage’s senior properties historian Paul Pattison, who is leading the research project, said that SiS’s video survey had led to several dramatic discoveries.

He said: “Thanks to SiS’s survey work, we have identified two fireplaces we didn’t know about and one chimney shaft that leads down from the roof, but not to a known fireplace.

“The chimney shafts at Dover Castle are roughly 18in by 18in, but not all shafts are straightforwardly vertical.

Lighting was also a major challenge, but the results so far are very detailed.”

SiS was recommended for the castle project by Paul Bryan, head of English Heritage’s metric survey and photogrammetry team, after it used a helium balloon to obtain detailed photography of the upper parts and tops of walls at Fountains Abbey, in North Yorkshire, to help English Heritage assess the extent of weather damage without the need for scaffolding.

It is the latest success for SiS, which was set up 18 months ago by the former management team of the Newcastle-based company of the same name.

It moved into premises on the Green Lane Industrial Estate and within six months had secured contracts with Network Rail, London Underground and British Waterways.