Having supported the fire alarms at Winchester Cathedral for well over two decades, ARC Fire Safety and Security Ltd have since been invited to provide the same service support and systems solutions at three more cathedrals – St Albans, Chichester and Salisbury Cathedral.
It is massively important to us to support sites with so much importance to all of our heritage and we are rightly proud of the length of our tenure at Winchester Cathedral and the opportunity to repeat this at other incredible sites.
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, built in the Early English Gothic style between the years 1220 and 1330, boasts the tallest spire in England. The Cathedral Close which the cathedral dominates, is fringed with other heritage and listed buildings (some of which ARC Fire Safety and Security also support).
An important section of this medieval cathedral is the Chapter House.
The Magna Carta
The Chapter house displays the best-preserved of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta (other copies being held at The British Museum and Lincoln Castle). The Salisbury Cathedral copy was brought to the site by Elias of Dereham, who was present at the signing of the Magna Carta by King John at Runnymede in 1215 and was given the task of distributing some of the original copies.
The Magna Carta has since been seen as an important ancient document on which many of our country’s contemporary parliamentary powers and legal principles are based on.
Our Protection
As part of a site-wide upgrade of the CCTV system at Salisbury Cathedral, much of the discussion was based around a very bespoke solution for protecting the ancient document. Not only was high-quality CCTV footage and recording a pre-requisite but also a consideration of technical elements like the amount of ‘lux levels’ being created by the new cameras closest to the document. Light damage to the document caused by any additional equipment was not an option.
Our Account Management team and Lead engineer carried out several on-site meetings with our Client-partners at the cathedral and together, we created a collaborative solution. This included consultation with the CCTV equipment suppliers and by the time of project commencement, we were ready to carry out the work seamlessly.
The successful solution notwithstanding, the most enjoyable element of the project was the letter of thanks from the Client on completion of the job. Yet again our company DNA and Core Values shone through and brought another successful project over the line.
Discover more case studies that we have looked after by visiting our website. Get in touch with our team to learn more about our services and systems.
