Lincoln Castle
Preservation of a Lady
Our Poet In Residence at Lincoln Castle “Jools” has produced the latest installment in the poetical series after visiting site and meeting the local stone masons. Enjoy!
William’s conquering masterpiece requiring late renovation
Shakespeare’s expertise guiding surgical knife
Modestly draped concealment of skilled, steady progression
Exoskeletol protection, stone prosthetics, applied time
Fourteen attentive surgeons committed to enhancing history
Stonemasons labour length of battlements, discretely unseen
A lady’s privacy, king’s legacy, carefully guarded
Final, unveiled completion in two thousand and fifteen
Quarried replacement tested for resonating weakness
Tapping for clarity, pure eloquent sound of a bell
Earth’s treasure uncovered, a newborn’s soft resistance
Finding strength, aging quickly, immaturity’s tears dispelled
To be or not to be replaced, ashlar, walling stone, lime mortar
Chopped out with precision, dust relieved, moistly prepared
Ten percent of walls exhibiting suffering from eleventh century time line
Prove to future generations, twenty first century conscience cared
Battlement topping merlons, iconic crenellations, revisited
Youth blending seamlessly, disappearing over time
Eroded stringcourse replaced, redirects infiltrating rainfall
Lead capped, York stone shields circumnavigating spine
Pudlock holes, corrosive residue of medieval scaffolding
Allow habitation’s germination, as erosion burns
Roots circulating, grow veins of internal destruction
Removed and life taken, before integrity, rudely spurned
Lime mortar of specific science, three degrees and rising
Carbonating slowly, bonds, securely repaired
Hessian and polythene protecting, nurturing development
Castle’s defensive barrier, historic work of art, spared
Stainless steel handrails link modern living to tradition
Extending access to views of Lincolnshire, over greater beyond
Upon battlements, following elevation less travelled
Medieval walkway restored, within renovations planned
Towers of observation and Lucy, fractured until springtime
Without grace, emerging triumphant from intensive care
Each expensive need tended, each operation surrendered
Allowing terminal decay naturally, simply, too much to bare
‘A Winter’s Tale’ of slowed progress, of elemental impact
‘Love’s Labours Lost’ temporarily, beneath falling snow
‘Measure for Measure’, lime mortar’s ratio must prove perfect
Labour of love, blood, sweat and tears over stone
* ‘Those hours that with gentle work did frame
The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell’
This lady, resolute, of decreasing defect
Admire the romance, brave, violent stories, she could tell
Jools
* William Shakespeare (sonnet V)
Assisting information : Heath Shakespeare – Senior stonemason