When the world-famous gates at the entrance to the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth underwent a much needed restoration, it was us at Richard Harding Ltd that they turned to.
When these iconic blue gates were originally installed well over 100 years ago, Rolls Royce were nothing but a start-up company and Manchester United were better known as Newton Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway FC. That’s how long those gates have been there.
Although the gates had stood the test of time, they had seen better days and 118 years of good service were starting show signs of significant wear and tear. The exposed site meant that they had to bear the brunt of some pretty poor weather over the years, while the odd stray vehicle hadn’t helped along the way. They were badly corroded, dented and dinged and Defence Infrastructure Organisation and VIVO decided to have them removed and brought back to their original glory.
Restoring the gates back to their glory
At Richard Harding Ltd we pride ourselves on our quality construction work and our exceptional craftsmanship but we also pride ourselves on our ability to problem solve and that was essential on this Dartmouth project.
First of all, the gates had to be lifted out before being transported to a workshop in our home city of Plymouth. Here, they were chemically dipped to remove all rust, corrosion and existing old paint. This itself required careful consideration and specialist hoist equipment that was manufactured for this specific project.
The back to bear metal gates were then straightened on a jig which unfortunately revealed that pretty much every joint had to be rewelded. Once completed the gates were undercoated and gloss finished in the BRNC Oxford Blue colour before the famous gold crest was repainted back on in the old-fashioned way … by hand.
We reinstalled the gates at the end of 2023 after the restoration work was complete and they now once again proudly welcome naval candidates and visitors from around the world. Hopefully this will continue for another 100 years to come thanks to the Richard Harding Ltd team that undertook the project.