Client: Buckfast Abbey Trustees
JGP has carried out various design and investigation projects at Buckfast Abbey over the past ten years, from ground investigations, slope retaining structures, building conversions and refurbishments, to new builds.
Located next to the River Dart, the monastery at Buckfast dates back to 1018 to the reign of King Cnut. The Abbey has been rebuilt several times; the current Abbey Church is dated 1937. The Abbey is still a working monastery home to a community of Benedictine monks and also welcomes a wide range of visitors to their hotel, conference centre, gardens, winery, restaurant and shop facilities.
Recent projects on behalf of the Buckfast Abbey Trustees included structural engineering services for the conversion and refurbishment of a derelict stone-building into a £2M office complex known as St Anthony’s, and the structural design of a new £3.2M two storey, 33-bedroom hotel and conferencing facility known as Northgate House.
St Anthony’s required a significant programme of works including roof and floor strengthening of soft and hardwood structures, design of new steel staircases and floor trimmings, removal and reinstatement of structural walls and steelwork, construction of a new lift pit and shaft. This former factory / workshop is now a state of the art office complex and houses Accounts, Human Resources, IT, Bursars Dept., Building Dept., Education Dept. and Main Reception amongst others.
Northgate House is a traditional form of cavity masonry on strip footings with precast floors and a cut timber roof. The new build adjoins an existing three storey brick-built house, which was brought back to life from dereliction to become part of the accommodation complex. This retreat, which lies within site of the Abbey Church offers fully en-suite accommodation throughout, bar and dining facilities, function room and meeting rooms. JGP were joined by Moxley McDonald Architects and South West Contractors, Classic Builders in this prestigious development all set within the thousand-year-old Buckfast Abbey site.
