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120712 | Neglected quay wall is being repaired | This is Cornwal

Spotted in The Cornishman Thursday, July 12, 2012

Neglected quay wall is being repaired

Thursday, July 12, 2012

The Cornishman

AFTER decades of neglect, work has finally begun to repair a damaged section of the wall of East Quay in Hayle.

The wall, opposite the Custom House, collapsed several decades ago and work on the wall is expected to take three months following agreement by Cornwall Council's planners and historic environment adviser, Nick Cahill.

Site construction manager, Dave Simpson, said the listed structure was being rebuilt and repointed, adding: "It was hoped that when the collapsed material lying in the river was dug out, much of the stone – both scoria and granite – would be recovered.

"However this proved not to be the case, and it appears that the wall may have collapsed more than once in the past, as large lumps of concrete were found in the spoil heap indicating that after a previous collapse, the wall had been re-built in concrete."

Workers were using stone that has been recovered from the riverbed to square off the existing stonework.

He added: "In the gap between, mini-piles are to be driven from a platform just above riverbed level on which will sit a concrete slab. Off this slab will be built a reinforced blockwork wall and this will be faced with new coursed granite of the same style and source as used for the new walls on North Quay."

East Quay was built by the Cornish Copper Company in the early 1800s and at least some of it was built of scoria (copper slag) blocks – a by-product of copper smelting.

The remainder of the quay wall was built of granite of varying quality, some dressed and coursed, and some random.

The collapsed section is where a scoria section of wall abutted granite.