Telegraph House stands on a historic signalling site high in the South Downs, once part of the Admiralty’s early 19th-century shutter and semaphore line linking London with Portsmouth Dockyard.

Today’s house and tower are later additions, built in the Victorian period in connection with that system and now listed for their historic interest.

By the time we were instructed, the tower had developed significant structural cracking. Investigation revealed a combination of thermal movement and corroded wall ties as the principal causes, with trapped moisture behind the existing render contributing to the deterioration. Our works focused on stabilising the structure while respecting its historic fabric. We isolated and replaced failed ties with stainless-steel equivalents, removed defective render to allow the masonry to dry, stitched cracks with spiral reinforcement and installed new lath and render to provide a robust, breathable finish. The result is a tower made secure and weather-resilient once more, extending the life of a distinctive historic structure on a site that has played a quiet but important role in the story of naval communication.