School's dragon flies to new roost

A LANDMARK feature on the Forres skyline has been moved for health and safety reasons.

The dragon weather vane which towers over Anderson’s Primary School was removed during repair work to the building’s stonework and has now been repositioned a few metres behind the spire.

“The weathervane was deemed unsafe,” said Darroch and Allan contractor, David Box. “We’d cut holes into the spire to check for oxide jacking around the rod supporting the weathervane because rust can cause steel and iron to expand displacing stonework. It was discovered that the rod inside had corroded so much that it had to be cut off and the remaining steel removed from the spire.”

Options for refixing the vane to the spire were considered too costly given the extent of additional repairs required for stability.

Instead, consultation with Historic Scotland regarding the B-listed building resulted in an alternative location being identified on an adjacent part of the school roof.

The work followed a detailed high level survey of the school which revealed health and safety concerns over the structural stability of some areas of the existing masonry.

The original spire building, Anderson’s Institution, opened as Forres Academy in 1829. The dragon weathervane is likely to have been placed then. The bigger part of the Academy was added in 1926. The building was modernised in 1971 and converted for use to the primary school we know now.

The final bill for the work that started in August was around £145,000. Once the scaffolding was up, high-level windows were found to be rotting, and the nature of the stonework meant that they had to be replaced. In addition there were more unsafe areas of masonry that required attention.

“We replaced at least 60 stones on the spire alone,” said Mr Box. “Stone that was deemed dangerous was replaced all around sections of the building.

“We’ve been quite lucky with the weather during the work for this time of year but we had to stop when it was frosty because the temperature must be at a certain level to allow work with lime.

Mr Box praised Anderson’s staff and pupils for their patience over the course of the contract while scaffolding and tools were sectioned off.

“The kids, teachers and janitor have been fantastic throughout our work,” he said. “The janitor mentioned that the roof had been leaking so we sorted that out for him too.

“We are officially finished today but we’ll have everything cleared away and the site returned to its original state by the end of the week.”

The ‘Gazette’ was unable to find any further information about the dragon weathervane, having checked ‘The Annals of the Royal Burgh of Forres’, ‘Forres A Royal Burgh 1150-1975’ and spoken to local historians.

Do you know anything abut it? If so, please get in touch at newsdesk@forres-gazette.co.uk or on 672615.