Built Heritage Maintenance Funding for Clarendon and Hobart Penitentiary

The Hobart Penitentiary Chapel and Clarendon have benefitted from concerted works programs made possible by a Tasmanian Government Built Heritage Maintenance grant.

At the Hobart Penitentiary Chapel, internal and external painting prepared the site for the launch of the Convict Memorial.

Work at Clarendon has addressed problems of rising, falling and penetrating damp including replacing rainwater goods, tracing drainage lines, replacing the moat pumps and addressing damp affected plaster. In Clarendon’s basement the uneven paving was relaid following the subtraction of plastic sheeting that had trapped moisture and forced it into the walls of the house. With Clarendon gradually drying out, the house’s interior environment is so much sweeter.

Structural engineer, Peter Spratt, recently came to Clarendon to advise on strengthening the rooves. The Coxes built Clarendon’s outbuildings on an industrial scale during the 1830s and 40s. Today’s windloads, particularly from the south-west, put these large rooves under tremendous pressure, resulting in cracking to the brick walls. Expensive but unseen work will need to be done to safeguard these buildings for the future.

National Trust Tasmania would like to thank Andrew Roberts, Ian Boersma and the team at Heritage Tasmania for their support and advice.

The Trust has ambitions for Clarendon which will unfold over this calendar year. For further details click here.

Pictured Above: Structural Engineer, Peter Spratt, and Property Manager, Ken Richards, inspect the Clarendon coachhouse roof structure for how the rafters are being displaced from the landing plate.