Messenger BCR Group was formed by Paul Gibbons and Kris Kosmaczewski in April 2011 with a local Head Office at the Collyweston Heritage Centre.

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Messenger is dedicated to the careful conservation and repair of historic buildings and structures, including Grade I and II listed buildings, along with the construction of new buildings within historic environments.

 

 

The team at Messenger has a passion for preserving, protecting and enhancing the built environment and includes Chartered Quantity Surveyors, Building Surveyors, Estimators and Contracts Managers, all working in partnership with a highly skilled and reliable workforce. Messenger’s skilled tradesmen include Conservators, Stone Masons, Collyweston Stone Slaters, skilled Carpenters and Joiners, Plasterers and Decorators. They also have an in-house team of heritage lead workers as well as a passive fire protection department.

 

Clients include The National Trust, English Heritage, Natural England, The Church, Conservation Trusts, members of The Historic Houses Association as well as private individuals.

 

 

Messenger’s home, the Collyweston Heritage Centre, will also shortly be home to a permanent exhibition of the art of Collyweston stone slating.

 

 

The exhibition will house a selection of artefacts; including written records, tools and photographs and will cover the history of Collyweston slating, from the traditional mining and splitting process, through to current methods using open cast mining and portable freezer units.

 

Messenger was commissioned by English Heritage back in 2012 to work with Sheffield Hallam University, to trial the process of splitting the log using artificial freezing methods. Messenger has since re-roofed a number of buildings using in excess of 500 sq/m of ‘new’ Collyweston slate. A similar process which is also being successfully used by their Collyweston neighbours Claude N Smith, who recently re-opened their mine.

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Incorporating modern technology into the exhibition is also important, and to that end, Messenger have had a virtual reality experience produced, of their onsite Gadsby Field mine. This enables the viewer to explore the mine in it’s current state, complete with tools and buckets left behind by the men on their last working day.

 

Access to the Collyweston slating exhibition will be by appointment only. To register an interest, please contact hayley.gibson@messengerbcr.co.uk