Case Study: Westward Ho! Quicksetts Poem

Westward Ho! – Quicksetts Lettering

Background

Torridge District Council were successful in securing £418,000 from the Coastal Communities Fund. As part of the enhancements and following consultation with local residents, a desire emerged to honour the memory of Rudyard Kipling who spent several of his childhood years in Westward Ho! In memory of Rudyard, the first verse of his most well known poem If, was to be spelt out along the promenade in granite setts.

IF you can keep your head when all around you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
Rudyard Kipling, 1895

Design

Whilst pricing for the tender, local contractor Devon & Cornwall Surfacing realised the complexity of making shapes with traditional granite setts and began researching for a quicker, easier solution. Quicksetts being a thickness of 18mm could be adhered without the need for excavation. The smooth finished setts could produce elegant, perfectly formed letters making them the ideal choice for the project. Resin bound aggregate would then be used to infill to a depth of 18mm between the letters.

Jobling Purser working closely with DCS began work formulating a layout plan to accommodate the dimensions required by the client allowing a tender price to be submitted, finally being awarded to Devon & Cornwall Surfacing in February 2016 with a completion required by the end of May 2016.

Installation

The installation of the poem began with Devon & Cornwall Surfacing carefully marking up the site to ensure that the letters would sit correctly on a straight line. Following the guide sheet drawn up by Jobling Purser, DCS began by laying out each letter using a combination of the square and inner dovetail Quicksetts. Once content with the shape of the letter, they marked around the area and removed the Quicksetts noting their position and spacing.

Unlike conventional granite setts no excavation was required. The Quicksetts Bedding and Jointing Compound, which is based upon proven polyurethane technology, was mixed and applied to the marked out area. The Quicksetts could then be simply placed into the resin to form the shape of each letter and allowed to set.

Once the poem was complete, resin bound surfacing supplied by Suresetwas laid to an 18mm thickness infilling around the Quicksetts and the site was handed back to the client.

Results

The Devon and Cornwall Surfacing crew completed the laying of the Quicksetts totalling 71 words, made up of 271 letters in just 6 days! The client, Torridge District Council are thrilled with the results Devon and Cornwall Surfacing have produced stating the finish is amazing!