New DVDs

Pargeting
Historic Building Craftsmanship DVD Series
Quicklime Films in association with the SPAB
Peter T J Rumley is talking to Bill Sargent

Avaiable from SPAB at £14.95 (inc VAT) + postage & packaging
To buy a copy visit our on-line shop

Pargeting is decorative render applied to the facades of buildings, and ranges from single patterns scratched into the surface to exuberant hand-modelled forms.  Its application requires technical skill as well as artistic sympathy.  This 66-minute DVD captures in action Bill Sargent, one of the most highly regarded pargeters in the country.

Elaborate relief pargeting at the old Sun Inn, Saffron Walden, EssexBill Sargent - pargeting - at East Anglia Building Conservation Fair - St Nicholas Chapel, King's Lynn, photo by David Hennessy

Bill Sargent began plastering in the mid-sixties, completing a formal apprenticeship at the Hertfordshire College of Building.  After college, Bill worked with his father, continuing the family business in traditional plasterwork and pargeting begun by his grandfather in 1926, throughout East Anglia.  Bill’s work includes the conservation of internal and external old plasterwork, decorative pargeting, limewashing, lime floors and moulds.

Sine 1971, Bill has been based in mid-Suffolk, where many examples of his work may be seen, using materials such as clay plasters, chalk lime and lime putty plasters to produce a traditional finish and preserve the property.

Bill Sargent - demonstrating pargeting - during London Open House in the courtyard of SPAB's headquarterContents
Types of lath
Lime plasters
Hair and straw binders
Tools
Combed work
Stamped work
Relief work