These are the Ten Commandment Stones on Buckland Beacon in Dartmoor. Carved in 1928 and commissioned by the landowner they marked the rejection by Parliament to update the book of common prayer. Hardly legible it was my job to restore this inscription in this extraordinary and difficult location. My proposal was a conservative approach, with the aim of making the inscription legible but keeping the essential character of the stones as objects in the landscape. My team and I cleaned just the lettering using biocide and then small brushes, so we could find the letters and make a judgment about the extent of re-carving. In the end, we re-cut the entire inscription both to make it legible and to extend the life of the inscription as far as possible. It is our hope that the next time this is re-carved the carvers will have something to find. Finally the letters were painted with very hard wearing Keim paint.
