Royal master carver, Paul Wilson, was the guest of honour at St Osyth Priory as he pulled the cord on the velvet curtain to reveal his latest historic restoration.
The heraldic crest of the Earl of Rochford has been a focal point of The Gatehouse at the St Osyth Priory estate for almost 300 years and now its future has been assured for centuries more.
The coat of arms was first erected by Frederic Nassau de Zuylestein, 3rd Earl of Rochford, who took possession of the estate in 1721, making it his main seat in England and beginning an expansive programme of improvements which shaped much of the estate as it is seen today.
In recent years, time and climate had taken their toll on the coat of arms and a painstaking restoration was required to bring the landmark back to life. As a pivotal part of the multi-million-pound regeneration of the historic estate, Paul was the top man for the job. Well known for his work on many of the royal palaces around the UK, Paul dedicated more than 1,000 hours of his highly-skilled craftsmanship to the transformation.
Paul explains: “The coat of arms was in a terrible state. It hadn’t been touched for over 100 years. It was almost beyond repair, but we sat down and went through a programme of restoration. We managed to consolidate and replace the carving where necessary. It has now been re-gilded and painted, with the exact colours of the original recreated from tiny fragments of paint salvaged from the wood.”
The emblem itself features coronets, lions and a pair of buck horns and includes the Latin motto Spes Durat Avorum, which translates as 'May the hopes of our forefathers endure'. As the project to revitalise the many historic buildings within the St Osyth Priory Estate continues, the motto seems perfectly in tune with the sense of responsibility to pick up and continue the legacy of the estate that has lasted more than 1,000 years.
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