St Laurence School, Bradford on Avon

St Laurence School is a comprehensive academy for 11-18 year olds in the historic Wiltshire town of Bradford on Avon. The school was formed in 1980 when Fitzmaurice Grammar and Trinity Secondary Modern schools merged.

After aerial photographs indicated the remains of a Roman villa underneath the school's sports fields, excavations in 2003 uncovered Roman floor mosaics and a stone structure. In hot dry weather the outline of the villa can be seen in the grass.

In a circle surround by stone setts, outside of the main building sit three majestic London Plane trees – leaning in unison in the path of a natural wind tunnel. In 2004 (when our guarantee was 10 years) we installed resin bound paving around the trees, creating a substantial tree pit.

Due to extreme leaning of the trees, caused by the wind tunnel, the resin bound paving was becoming displaced around the tree roots.

We were contacted by Valetta Surfacing and asked to replace the resin bound paving for a no-dig tree surround.

Before we could begin installing the London Planes had to be substantially pruned, to help prevent further major leaning, and a permeable sub-base laid.

SureSet resin bound paving was installed following the natural fall and a circle created around the bottom of each tree trunk in flexible aluminium edging to allow further growth and movement.

Now affectionately known as ‘the biscuit’, the newly SureSetted tree pit is a low maintenance, accessible area outside the reception area.

The three beautiful London Planes have room around the bottom of the trunks to allow for growth and movement with no protruding roots - which also eliminates the potential for tripping.

‘Great job by your team. The customer was very happy with the whole project – many thanks.’
Nathan Browne, Valetta Surfacing

“Great job by your team, customer was very happy with the whole project. Many thanks.”
Nathan Browne, Director, Valletta Surfacing