Institute of Historic Building Conservation No 105 July 2008 Conserving churches
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C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 1 Context Cover: All Saints, Whiteparish,Wiltshire: (see p23), (Photo: National Churches Trust) From God to pod Editorial Some of the most ingenious re-uses of churches involve constructing a pod or ark inside the building, with as little as possible interference with the historic structure. The new structure accommodates modern activities and modern technology. The historic structure remains largely visible, and the option remains for the pod to be removed one day if a use (perhaps even the original one) requiring a large and inspiring space demands it. It is a compromise, of course. Something (perhaps a great deal) of the quality of space in the church will be lost, and the quality and usefulness of the space in the pod may be far from ideal. But the best architecture is often inspired by the most difficult briefs. Such compromises are familiar when dealing with historic churches. The value of a particular church may be religious, aesthetic, historical or social, or all of these. Potential values may conflict with one another as when, for example, historic furnishings stand in the way of modern liturgy or alternative uses. The pod-in-a-church may be the most modern symbol of changing churches, but such multiple functions are not new. As Becky Payne notes (p35), until the building of community and village halls, churches were the only buildings large Registered as a Charity Number 1061593. Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England Number 3333780. Registered Office: 3 Stafford Road,TunbridgeWells, Kent TN2 4QZ. www.ihbc.org.uk IHBC Officers President David Lovie email [email protected] Chairman Dave Chetwyn email [email protected] Vice Chair Sheila Stones email [email protected] Secretary Richard Morrice email [email protected] Treasurer Michael Knights email [email protected] Membership Secretary Jo Evans email [email protected] Education Secretary John Preston email [email protected] Publicity Secretary Doug Black email [email protected] Law & Practice Coordinator vacant email [email protected] Director Seán O’Reilly email [email protected] Projects Officer Fiona Newton email [email protected] Consultant Consultations Coordinator James Caird email [email protected] Membership Services Officer Devon DeCelles email [email protected] Administration Officer Lydia Porter email [email protected] IHBC Committee Chairs Policy Mick Downs email [email protected] Membership & Ethics Jo Evans email [email protected] Finance & Resources Richard Morrice email [email protected] Education John Preston email [email protected] Communications & Outreach Mike Brown email [email protected] Branch Officers North Geoff Underwood Tel 0191 433 3435 NorthWest Kate Borland Tel 0161 234 4556 Yorkshire Keith Knight Tel 01904 658482 West Midlands Charles Shapcott Tel 0121 704 4312 East Midlands Roy Lewis tel 01332 591175 South Rob Parkinson Tel 01993 861680 SouthWest Ian Lund Tel 01380 724911 East Anglia Pippa Colchester Tel 01245 437337 South East David Kincaid Tel 01227 862185 London David McDonald Tel 020 8881 6724 Scotland Charles Strang Tel 01835 822560 Wales Nathan Blanchard Tel 01492 583443 Northern Ireland Sharon BrownTel 028 9754 3087 Republic of Ireland Cormac O’Sullivan Tel 00353 5677 62907 Business Office Jubilee House, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6HA England Tel 01747 873133 Fax 01747 871718 email [email protected] enough to host community events. The chancel would be the place for worship while the nave (sometimes not even consecrated) became the community hall. Present controversies in the Church of England may create new demands for adaptation.We can imagine a congregation split in two. The traditionalists could worship in the historic part of a parish church, perhaps, and the modernists in a moderniststyled pod. If only religion were that easy. The latest pod project seems to offer much more than that sort of dreary compromise. Heritage Lottery funding will convert the Grade II* listed All Souls, Bolton (see p14), creating two large internal pods. These will provide community space for education, youth work, health services, a gym, and an interactive exhibition about the building, Bolton and interfaith learning. The pods will also enable a new perspective on this historic church by providing high-level walkways with views of the stained glass windows. A building that was dead and hardly noticed by its local community will come to life. The interaction between people and great buildings is never predictable. This issue of Context explores some of the challenges and unexpected delights. Institute ofHistoricBuildingConservation No 105 July2008 Conserving churches Briefing ...................................................... 2 Out of Context ............................................ 3 The Writer’s Voice ....................................... 4 Letters ....................................................... 5 Periodically ................................................ 6 Obituary: John Ashurst ................................ 9 St Barbara, patron saint of gutters Peter Aiers ............................................... 12 New life for All Souls Peter Aiers ............................................... 14 God’s Acre or forlorn boneyard? Roger Bowdler ......................................... 16 A voice for historic places of worship Crispin Truman ......................................... 21 Churches in a secular age Andrew Edwards ....................................... 23 Not just organ cases but a case for organs John Norman ........................... 25 Enforcement under ecclesiastical exemption Ian Serjeant . ............................ 27 English Heritage and places of worship Diana Evans ............................................. 30 Hubs of their communities Sarah Robinson ........................................ 33 Inside a broad church Becky Payne ............................................ 35 Conservation areas at risk Charles Wagner ........................................ 38 Prosecution, enforcement and reconstruction Simon Robertshaw .............. 40 Listed farm buildings under threat Elaine Milton ............................................. 43 Is this the final straw? Alison Henry ............................................. 44 Notes from the chair ................................. 47 Director’s cut ........................................... 48 Vox pop ................................................... 50 Book reviews . .......................................... 51 Products and services .............................. 53 Advertisers index ...................................... 56
2 C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 Context Briefing Copy deadlines Context is published five times a year, in March, May, July, September and November. The remaining copy deadlines in 2008 are: Issue Deadline September, Issue 106 18 July November, Issue 107 22 September Editor Rob Cowan Editorial Coordinator Fiona Newton 21 George Street, Louth, Lincolnshire LN11 9JU Tel 01507 602567 email [email protected] Editorial Board Fiona Newton (chair) Susan Brook (treasurer) Nigel Crowe (main features) Peter de Figueiredo (book reviews) Michael Taylor (main features) Cartoons and illustrations by Rob Cowan Context is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2008 ISSN 0958-2746 Publisher Published for the Institute of Historic Building Conservation by Cathedral Communications Limited, High Street, Tisbury,Wiltshire, England SP3 6HA Tel 01747 871717 Fax 01747 871718 email [email protected] www.buildingconservation.com Non-member subscriptions to Context Context is available to non-members of the IHBC at an annual subscription rate, including postage, of: United Kingdom £50.00 Elsewhere £75.00 Subscription orders, together with remittances payable to Institute of Historic Building Conservation, should be sent to the IHBC Business Office at Jubilee House, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6HA. The views expressed in Context are not necessarily held by the IHBC or the publisher. Neither the publisher nor the IHBC shall be under any liability whatsoever in respect of contributed articles. We gratefully acknowledge the support of firms whose advertisements appear throughout this publication.While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this issue of Context is current and correct, neither the IHBC nor the publisher can be held responsible for any errors or omissions which may occur. No to member review As Context went to press, we received initial reports of Baroness Andrews’ contribution to the House of Lords debate on the Planning Bill for England and Wales. Part 9 of the Bill contained provisions to set up local member review bodies to determine certain planning appeals, instead of the secretary of state as now. The government has concluded that, while that might have brought some benefit, it risked distracting local authorities, particularly at a time when there was an urgent need for them to focus on strategic plans and issues. It therefore intended to drop this provision at committee stage. The IHBC has warmly welcomed this development, which follows energetic lobbying by the sector, in particular the RTPI. Baroness Andrews’ keynote speech to the IHBC’s Annual School in June in Guildford made it clear that she will listen to concerns raised in the development of new legislation. The institute hopes that the concerns that the IHBC and its partners have raised over comparable provisions in the draft Heritage Bill for England and Wales will lead to a similar outcome. Church repair grants The Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage have announced a package of grants worth £6.87 million for essential repairs to Grade II listed churches and chapels across England. The grants will help to repair over 70 historic places of worship. The largest grant, £251,000, will be given to St Mark’s Church, Lakenham in Norfolk to renew its leaking roof. Since 2002 more than £133 million in essential repair grants has been awarded to almost 1,500 historic places of worship through the joint Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage Repair Grants for Places of Worship scheme, the largest single funding source for work of this kind. The Church of England currently spends £120 million a year on repairs. According to English Heritage research published as part of the Inspired! Campaign, the backlog repair bill for all listed places of worship in England is an estimated £925 million over the next five years. Grant for Soar Chapel The Heritage Lottery Fund has agreed a grant of £527,000 to transform the town’s Soar Chapel and Vestry buildings into a centre for performing arts and community activities. The HLF has earmarked the money while more detailed plans are put together. An additional £56,700 of development funding from the HLF will enable a community organisation to develop its £1.3 million plan to ensure a sustainable future for the Grade II listed chapel. Soar Chapel is one of the few remaining Congregational chapels to have survived intact in an area that has lost a significant amount of its 19th century built heritage. On the waterfront A conference ‘On theWaterfront: culture, heritage and regeneration of port cities’ will be held in Liverpool on 19-21 November. Speakers, including Simon Thurley of English Heritage and Sir Bob Scott of the Liverpool Culture
C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 3 ‘WHEN BRISTOL council removed the antique lamp-posts from David Cemlyn’s street in the St Andrews area of the city, it did not realise the volcano of anger it was about to unleash. By the time it came to uproot those in the next street, he was resorting to direct action, chaining himself to a threatened post and going on hunger strike. ‘“I live in an area totally developed between 1880 and 1900,” he says. “These lamp-posts were put up when my house was built.” ‘If the replacement of the old cast iron columns with what he derides as “motorway lights” was not galling in itself, the fate of the removed lights is enough to propel him into apoplexy. ‘Bristol Council removes the old lamp-posts and where they are in a useable state carts them off to one of the city’s conservation areas.’ From the BBC website ‘OUR DECISION [not to recommend the Robin Hood Gardens estate for listing] was made with the utmost careful consideration. In the first stage, which is consideration by our staff, the advice was consistently against listing. As is usual in contentious cases, the matter was then referred to our panel of external experts on the English Heritage Advisory Committee who took, by a narrow margin, the contrary view; and then on to our decision-making body, the commission, which endorsed the English Heritage staff view that the Robin Hood Gardens estate did not meet all the criteria necessary for listed status. ‘First, in our opinion, as a piece of community architecture, it fails as a place for human beings to live – and did so from the start. Its bleak entrance lobbies, prison-like boundary wall, the too few, narrow, twisting stairwells and the inadequate access to the long decks and people’s front doors do not make for a pleasing and comfortable environment. ‘Second, it was neither innovative nor influential. By the time the estate was built, in 1972, it was already out of date and at the tail-end of a movement, A new east window designed by Shirazeh Houshiary, in collaboration with architect Pip Horne, has been installed above the altar at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.This marks the final stage of the church’s renewal project.The artwork replaces a window installed following second world war bomb damage. Astley Castle inWarwickshire is a step closer to being saved by the Landmark Trust, following the Heritage Lottery Fund’s promise of a £1.47 million grant. Dating back to the 1200s, the building has lain derelict since it was devastated by fire in 1978. The Landmark Trust proposes to insert modern accommodation within the ruined walls.The project will also include a learning programme with local schools and eight public open days each year. Company, will explore the future of port cities, from Liverpool to NewYork, and Shanghai to Lagos. How can we best protect the integrity of historic maritime ports and ensure that their distinctiveness is not lost? The conference will emphasise the role of heritage, the importance of cultural tourism, and how waterfront projects in port cities such as Mumbai and Gdañsk have made use of previously redundant areas to fashion places where creativity has flourished. See www. english-heritage.org.uk/onthewaterfront. Gus Astley Student Award The IHBC is calling on current students to enter their best coursework for the IHBC Gus Astley Student Award, 2008. The top prize is £300, a chance to present at the institute’s 2009 Annual School in Buxton, and the opportunity of getting published in Context. The IHBC’s award is inspired by the memory of Gus Astley, the IHBC’s former membership secretary. Students are encouraged to enter course work as soon as practical. Submission must follow the terms posted on the IHBC website (www.ihbc.org.uk). The closing date for submissions covering the 2007–8 academic year is 31 December 2008. From The Functional Tradition by JM Richards, Architectural Press (1958) THE ASSIMILATION of industrial objects into the established, humanised landscape created in the eighteenth century – the curving lines of metal rails into the pastoral valleys of which they are now so characteristic a feature that their presence is even capable of evoking nostalgic sentiments; the rectangular masses of the textile mills piled one above the other into the slopes of the grey north country hillsides – has been so triumphantly achieved that we can perhaps gain from them some confidence that the new industrial structures of our own time, the airports and atomic power stations and the like, will in due course be assimilated too – but only if they, like their predecessors, are designed in the forthright but highly adaptable spirit of the functional tradition. ‘The award is tailored to meet the needs of today’s students,’ says IHBC director Seán O’Reilly. ‘Generally no additional preparation is required.’ Candidates need only email their best piece of coursework to [email protected]. Sheffield arts tower HLM Architects has been appointed to refurbish the Grade II* listed, 22-storey University of Sheffield arts tower in the city centre. The building, currently the tallest in Sheffield, is suffering problems associated with flooding, asbestos, lifts, building circulation, sanitation, heating and disrepair. The tower will be re-clad and internal areas will be improved. The interior design will make the building more efficient, improving the heating and ventilation, reducing glare, easing congestion around the lifts and lecture theatres, and improving disabled access.
4 C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 Material matters Timber numbering stamp I was recently shown a number stamp, which I understand was used for marking construction timber. The stamp is in the form of a hammer, with a reverse imprint of a number on the head. It appears to date from the 20th century. The stamp is double headed, with the numbers 3 and 4 (approximately 20mm high) at either end. It is thought that the stamp was used for various purposes such as marking the grades of sawn timber, marking ownership on timber lots at auctions, or as a tool for marking construction joints as an aid to reassembly. Another suggestion was that they were used for numbering packing crates. Number and letter stamps are not uncommon, often being used to stamp metal and furniture. Carpenters’ marks in buildings (numbers, letters and symbols made with chisels, gauges and compasses) are well documented, but this is the first time I have come across a timber stamp of this size and in this form. Partition blocks In the May issue of Context we featured an unusual cement/ash block with straw/reed reinforcing, discovered in a building in Ascot. Structural engineer Charles Shapcott has found some references to similar products used for internal partition walls. Searching through old building text books, Charles found a description of light plaster blocks for internal use which could be laid without mortar and skewnailed together. The featured blocks were manufactured by JA King, based in London EC4, which is apparently still trading. A number of other similar blocks were identified containing various materials ranging from clay, foamed concrete and slag, and special flue blocks containing vermiculite. Most block partitions seem to be keyed to take a plaster or render finish, although a product known as Frazzi Blocks (used for external construction) were smooth-sided internally and ribbed to take the render externally. Charles has a photograph of the internal view of the church of St Peter Galley Common,Warwickshire, where the blocks are left exposed to resemble ashlar stone. There are references to hollow and steel reinforced blocks, but no mention of straw or reed reinforcing. However, one product advertised as the Grip partition block (manufactured by Phorpes and measuring 9 x 6½ x 2 inches) was of solid clay. The blocks had diagonal groves in the face to take tensioned ‘wires to resist the lateral forces’. This must have been a pain to those trying to install services without cutting the wires. Julian Bagg Readers who would like to share examples of unusual materials or tools should contact Julian Bagg, IHBC technical panel coordinator, at [email protected]. rather than the beginning. Park Hill in Sheffield was built a decade earlier, on a much more confident scale and its “streets in the sky” were therefore more innovative as well as being wider and more accessible. ‘Lastly, the building, in itself, does not compare successfully with other 20th century estates listed at Grade ll, such as the Barbican and the Brunswick Centre. There are 13 listed post-war estates in London alone. ‘We certainly agree that the Smithsons had a strong reputation as major architectural theorists and English Heritage has previously listed three of their finest schemes. The Robin Hood Gardens estate, however, attracted little admiration from critics at the time or in the immediate later years. It is only very recently that it seems to have found favour in some vocal quarters.’ Statement by English Heritage chairman Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart ‘ROBIN Hood’s defenders include the richest architects and developers in the land. If they want their icon, let them have it. They should be granted three months to go down to Poplar, put in an offer for the estate, persuade its residents of the beauty of their environment and agree to restore it. Let money follow where mouths so boldly go. ‘Nor is that all. Now that something, however ugly, has touched the heart of modern architecture, may its champions be less dismissive of those who fight to save buildings of more appeal than Robin Hood Gardens. This is a profession which (with noble exceptions) claims that buildings no longer “modern” in design or utility should be demolished and replaced. It has persistently refused to aid any historic structure that has suffered that most dire of fates, to come between an architect and his fee. Robin Hood would be a fitting sacrifice to this new sensitivity.’ Simon Jenkins writing in the Guardian ‘The real mistake was to use Robin Hood Gardens as a sink estate practically from the time it was completed, and thereafter to fail dismally to maintain the beautifully designed buildings and the magnificent landscape around them. It was also appallingly managed. Robin Hood Gardens is a great example of the best post-war architecture and deserves to be kept for future generations.’ Lord (Richard) Rogers writing in the Guardian
C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 5 Letters… People in glass houses should not throw stones From Dennis Rodwell I should like to thank Tony Redman for acknowledging in his article ‘A threat worse than Ceauşescu’ (Context 104, May 2008) the urgency of the warning given in my conference report in the immediately previous issue (‘From globalisation to localisation in central and eastern Europe’, Context 103, March 2008): namely, that in the absence of policies that marry the aspirations of post-communist societies of central and eastern Europe with their surviving, centuries-old built heritage, the conservationist’s paradise of 1990 has all the makings of the conservationist’s nightmare of the early 21st century. Since 2001 I have had the privilege of visiting Romania a dozen times and of working on a wide variety of assignments involving individuals, non-governmental organisations and governmental bodies within the country, and capacitybuilding programmes supported by agencies and institutions from outside. These assignments have mostly, but not exclusively, taken me across the region known today as Transylvania – the focus of Redman’s polemic. As a Brit working extensively abroad in recent years I have found it imperative to avoid any hint of judgemental selfrighteousness when seeking to assist others in their countries to resolve conservation and related urban planning challenges that they – if not we ourselves – recognise have not always been addressed with unmitigated success in the UK. As a regular participant in Romania I am aware, for example, of the caution that needs to be taken in addressing the increasingly pervasive DIY culture. Contrary to Redman’s report, the Romanian-owned chain based in Sibiu, Bricomat, has a clear meaning in the national language, namely ‘DIY materials’.The meaning of one of its competitors, Bricostore (with outlets also in Croatia and Hungary), is selfevident.The word ‘brico’ is a shortening of the Romanian word ‘bricolaj’, which in turn is taken from its counterpart in French, ‘bricolage’. It is symptomatic of the perception that the DIY culture originated in Britain, that the Frenchbased international chain of DIY stores trades under the name of ‘Mr Bricolage’ – not ‘M Bricolage’ as linguistic purists might expect. Just to underline the generic branding, Mr Bricolage has also now opened stores in Romania. We reap as we sow.We have extensively failed to direct the DIY culture in the conservation interest in Britain. B&Q, for example, has for years sold the same paint and other materials that Transylvanians can now buy in their DIY stores. Are we really in a secure position to preach on this issue to others? We also need to display caution – not least in a professional journal such as Context – in repeating street gossip about corruption and bribery. From my travels across Romania I could be forgiven for the conclusion that everyone in Romania considers everyone else to be corrupt. The word is used loosely and rarely has any legalistic connotations. Popular usage can reflect a misunderstanding, or indeed a mature reflection, on how the free market operates when compared to the pre-1990 command economy, before the onset of market forces and fashion. In modern Romania the concept of altruistic disinterest has not yet taken hold.The stereotype of Romania as endemically corrupt is no more valid than the anticipation in some guidebooks on Scotland that it rains 24/7, 52 weeks of the year, and that everyone wears a kilt. As a campaigning tactic, notably today in Sighişoara, trading insults is foolish and doing untold damage to the conservation cause. Redman refers to ‘unsuitable improvements even in world heritage sites’. He specifically contests the use of UPVC windows. So do I, wherever and whenever. But how can we preach to Romanians when, for example, no Article 4 directions are in place in the conservation areas of our very own world heritage site of Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, and where the recent multimillion pound, grant-aided programmes of housing rehabilitation and repair have actively supported the use of plastic windows and metal-faced doors? Look-alike, yes. Conservation standard, clearly not.The result of ‘corruption’ by marketing and fashion? Or simply a pragmatic approach by the local authority in the broader interest of avoiding alienation among the 6,500 population of a socio-economically disadvantaged SouthWales community? There are very few instances in Romania where regulatory provisions are made for architectural details.There is no more need to obtain consent for ‘unsuitable improvements’ in a world heritage site inTransylvania than there is in SouthWales – except in both cases in the limited instances of listed buildings or monuments.Whereas the current plan-making system in Romania has its imperfections (where in the world is the democratic process foolproof?), it is not the case that developers can ‘dictate amendments’ to detailed plans (PUZs). Such plans are subject to approval by the responsible local council. Further, repetition of the cold war rhetoric about Nicolae Ceauşescu as the arch-vandal of post-second world war Europe needs to be balanced by recognition of the damage caused to the architectural heritage of the UK over the equivalent period of time through nationwide programmes of slum clearance, central area redevelopment, urban highways, and the initial projections of our government’s 2003 pathfinder initiative (400,000 houses to be destroyed). Any balanced statistical overview would almost certainly demonstrate that as a heritage vandal Ceauşescu was, by comparison, a rank amateur; just as Vlad Dracul was a mere shadow of the fictional character of Dracula portrayed in Bram Stoker’s novels and Hollywood films. The whole of central and eastern Europe is facing the same threats to its architectural and urban heritage as is Romania. Patronising approaches that do not ally post-communist socio-economic aspirations with the conservation interest are almost certainly doomed to failure. The pressing need is for dialogue: a meeting of minds to common purpose between different sectors and interests – including of course the public utilities. Much as I would wish it to be otherwise, it is not immediately obvious within Romania that Britons have either the best track record or the best skills to take a lead in assisting this process. Indeed, we have set the precedents for citycentre commercial redevelopments and conservation-free domestic improvements that are now being copied across the whole of the former eastern bloc. In Romania, especially, we need to display both modesty and balanced understanding if our involvement is to prove lastingly beneficial. On this condition, Redman’s pessimistic conclusion can be shown to be misplaced. Dennis Rodwell
6 C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 Periodically… As the sector gears up for the heritage protection reforms likely to commence in 2010, one might be forgiven for thinking this would preoccupy those sector newsletters and journals with an England or Wales focus. Surprisingly they do not, other than to restate the English Heritage published line. The SPAB has continued to be an informed critic, especially on resources, but for other bodies the reactions seem muted. Perhaps this is because the overall picture remains so unclear. The DCMS claims that nearly a hundred documents in all will be required. If that is the case we are all going to have to do a lot more reading. How the reforms relate to and integrate with the planning system will also be important. The latest issue of Theatres, the newsletter of the Theatres Trust (No 15, Spring 2008), has an informative article on how section 106 planning agreements may offer opportunities for theatres but only if the process is managed rigorously. Experience suggests that local planning authorities, despite their best intentions, can not always be relied upon to protect an arts client’s interests and it requires a tripartite agreement involving the local authority, developer and the theatre user. This statement of the seemingly obvious seems to indicate this is not as common as it should be. Where theatres are ‘protected assets’ (to use the new dread phrase) and are refurbished, the question of retaining authenticity remains important. Mark Price, the trust’s planning and architecture advisor, considers how this has been taken into account in the £125 million facelift to the Royal Festival Hall. Elsewhere, Nick Thompson, project architect at RHWL Architects, described the genesis behind the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, perhaps familiar to wider audiences as a snooker venue, completed in 1971 but recently listed Grade II. The Theatre’s Trust’s new website offers enhanced online resources in a project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It now has a more dynamic database of over 1,000 theatres. Each one is uniquely referenced and able to be continuously updated and extended. There are latest entries and recent updates sections which will permit easy access to revisions. The library currently has 2,000 images to browse. The trust’s resources officer, Kate Carmichael, would be interested in adding further material from IHBC members if they possess it. Natural Stone Specialist (March 2008) caused alarm with a small item on the 61 per cent rise in deaths at building refurbishment projects last year. This appears to have received little attention elsewhere in the sector specialist press. They also noted visits by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors to more than 1,000 sites in February where they stopped work on at least 300 projects. The HSE also served a further 395 enforcement notices. The article did not allude to heritagerelated schemes. But given the huge size of the refurbishment industry, the current slow-down in new-build, and the temptation to cut costs in a recession, conservation professionals should continue to think carefully about safety before entering sites. Go properly equipped and be alert. The HSE states that basic safety precautions are being flouted and issues such as work at height remain ‘a huge concern’. The RICS Building Conservation Journal (April 2008) deals with current developments in fire protection and prevention. Steve Emery, fire safety advisor at English Heritage, reminds us that saving life is the top priority, with CLG guidance stating that ‘the efficient evacuation of all occupants must take precedence over procedures for limiting damage to property and contents’. This might not be quite as all conservation professionals see it. Research by Graham Matthews of Liverpool John Moores University found, for example, that only 26 per cent of UK cultural institutions had conducted a disaster simulation although one third had experienced some form of disaster in the previous five years. Other alarming statistics are also presented. Emery does highlight three initiatives to deal with this, including an Emergency Planning Group for institutions (archives, libraries and museums) within the M25 to prepare for business continuity, emergency planning and mutual aid during an incident; a standardised training course for treatment of water- or fire-damaged art; and provision of guidance on heritage buildings to fire and rescue services which will assist with their integrated risk management plans (IRMPs). Since 2003 every fire and rescue authority has been required to
C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 7 produce a local IRMP, setting out the authority’s strategy for, among other things, reducing the number and severity of fires for which it has responsibility. Other initiatives include three-dimensional risk plans for historic buildings with complex layouts where the lack of familiarity with the layout might confuse the emergency services; and password-protected emergency plans on the internet which the fire and rescue services could access immediately. Elsewhere Peter Napier considers the factors which make historic buildings particularly vulnerable to fire. With the widely recognised concern at the shortage of heritage craft skills coming more to the fore, there are interviews with two of the sector’s most distinguished practitioners: master plasterer Jeff Orton – ‘plasterers never retire’ – whose apprenticeship lasted from 1963 to 1968; and Dick Reid, master mason and former president of the Master Carvers Association, who is about to retire after 50 years in the business. He became an apprentice in the 1950s, and from the ages of 15 to 18 ‘just carved’. Both remain strong advocates of the traditional apprenticeship system. As past readers of this column will know, the annual Transactions of the Association for Studies in the Conservation of Historic Buildings (ASCHB) tend to appear a year behind all the others. Those for 2007 (Volume 30) have just appeared but they have been well worth waiting for because of the breadth of the subject matter. There are seven excellent articles, all fully illustrated in colour. Sam Price explains the work to arrest movement in the walls of Beverley Minster. Hawksmoor and George Gilbert Scott both attempted to stop movement in the nave but monitoring in the 1990s showed this was continuing. The article explains the construction and history of the movement, and the recent works to remedy it. Nick Hill very thoroughly describes and illustrates the comprehensive repair of the circa 1620 Jacobean panelling to the Long Gallery at Apethorpe Hall, Northamptonshire. One of the largest joinery conservation projects of recent years, this presented an unusual opportunity to investigate and analyse the detail. A highly unusual full-size design for the panelling was revealed on the wall behind it. Jeremy Musson, former architectural editor of Country Life, in a piece entitled ‘Learning to Love Again: the power of affection’ provides meditation on the need for the emotional and subjective responses to historic buildings to be championed. However good the statutory system, this could lead to an over-reliance on objective assessment, denying the force of emotional value that had shaped the conservation movement from its inception. The splendid four pages are well worth reading, not least by the politicians driving the current reforms. Context has for some years published reports by Stuart Page about the continuing repairs by the National Trust at Ightham Mote in Kent. The current ASCHB article draws together many of the threads about the conservation of the building, which was bequeathed to the trust in 1985 and has been under repair since 1991. Another long-running project has been Kew Palace. Unlike Ightham Mote, where the repair in progress could be seen, this building was off-limits to visitors for a decade from 1996. The external repairs were explained in Volume 27 of Transactions. This article deals with the interior, including the approach to the work and procurement. One fascinating aspect was ‘thinking day’, called when the tenders for the interpretation design failed to deliver what the Historic Royal Palaces were looking for in terms of a sensory and stimulating, yet subtle and immediate effect. This was particularly important on the second floor, where there were princesses’ bedrooms abandoned 200 years ago and never before open to visitors. A collection of television and theatre producers, writers and installation artists were invited to spend a morning wandering around the palace with a commentary of what had happened there. They discussed their impressions and possible presentations in the afternoon. ‘Unusually free thoughts emerged’ to develop ways of interpreting without being ‘didactic, boring or damaging the thing that everyone loves best – the untouched atmosphere’.We should all consider such thinking–outside-the-box more often. The other two articles both deal with churches. The conservation of a rediscovered mid-19th century decorative scheme by Burliston and Grylls in the remarkable Norman church of St Peter, Northampton, followed initial investigations into mould growth on the unheated interior walls. The analysis, removal of the mould, stripping of the walls and redecoration and conservation are explained in detail. St Mary de Haura, New Shoreham, is argued to be Sussex’s finest church, with the rarity of being stone-vaulted. Failure of the chalk webs to the choir vault had been observed in 1991. In the late 1990s analysis was undertaken which led to the vault webs being renewed between 2003 and 2005, assisted by the English Heritage and Heritage Lottery Fund joint grant scheme for churches in worship. The work described and illustrated in the article earned the architect Richard Andres of Carden and Godfrey the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association King of Prussia’s Gold Medal in 2006. Your reviewer had occasion to remark recently about the quality of C20, the magazine of the Twentieth Century Society. In the latest issue (Spring 2008) the director’s editorial refers to a new venture for the society: study days looking at 20th century architecture. She speculates that heritage minister Margaret Hodge would be one beneficiary in the light of her antipathy to the current listing criteria for the buildings of this era. The society also noted that ‘we must make quite sure that Margaret Hodge’s personal views are not allowed to sabotage all the good work [on heritage reform].’ The magazine highlights the importance of campaigning for unprotected historic buildings when this crosses over from the specialist architectural press to the mainstream media, including the Daily Mail and the BBC. The case in question is Robin Hood Gardens, Poplar, East London by Alison and Peter Smithson,
8 C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 dating from 1970.While space here does not permit a blow-by-blow account of how this was picked up but dropped by the Architects’ Journal, then vigorously pursued by Building Design before hitting the nationals, it is a salutary tale of how such campaigning can be effective. At the time of writing, the outcome of the listing application is awaited from Margaret Hodge. The issue of C20 also commemorates the legacy of Wells Coates, who died on 17 June 1958 after a 30-year career that saw him play a significant role in the development of British modernism. This column turns full circle to end on the heritage protection reforms. In Cornerstone, the newsletter of the SPAB (Volume 29, No 1, 2008), in an editorial entitled ‘A Bill that hides from reality’, Philip Venning expresses the society’s concern that the Heritage Bill will not be as all-transforming as we were expecting. He bemoans the lack of resources, and fears that ideas about producing more detailed list descriptions, with extra material such as definitions of curtilage, ‘may not be realised for some time’. Some understatement. The society also expresses disappointment that the government is likely to miss the rare opportunity of reforming the whole system of enforcement and urgent works notices: although they are fine in theory, in practice they are too problematical for most local authorities to consider until it is too late. The SPAB’s two main concerns, though, are resources – ‘the heavy extra burden being placed on overworked local authority conservation officers’ – and the greater emphasis (also in the Planning Bill) on preapplication discussion, which would mitigate against effective notification of the national amenity societies until ‘matters have already been sewn up’. The editorial notes the intention to include conservation areas on English Heritage at-risk registers in 2008. It will be interesting to see if the DCMS or CLG secondary legislation (including the General Permitted Development Order) will do anything to eliminate at-risk conservation areas (apart perhaps from wholesale de-designations). Heritage reforms need good heritage ministers. Marcus Binney has graded some of the past incumbents from the 1960s onward. Richard Crossman, Geoffrey Ripon,Wayland Kennet and Michael Heseltine were ‘winners’. Peter Shore, Lady Birk and Tessa Jowell were ‘average’, which seems rather generous. Perhaps surprisingly he fails to mention Virginia Bottomley, David Mellor, Chris Smith or Peter Brooke. The last named is a ‘winner’ in this reviewer’s eyes, not least for his steadfast support for the listing system, but especially his generous and whole-hearted support for the transition of the Association of Conservation Officers into the IHBC. Bob Kindred MBE Longden’s reputation for exquisite quality and traditional craftsmanship spans more than 160 years. Beautiful, hand finished doorsets benefit from modern manufacturing techniques to meet all today’s performance requirements for fire resistance, sound reduction and security. Longden’s skill and expertise has helped heritage sites, historic houses and luxury hotels across the length and breadth of Britain to conserve, restore and refurbish. Contact Longden now to find out more. Tel: 0114 270 6330 E-mail: [email protected] www.longdendoors.co.uk 55 Parkwood Road, Sheffield S3 8AH THE ART OF CONSERVATION
C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 9 Remembering John Ashurst The pied piper of conservation John Ashurst was born on 14 March 1937 and died on 19 May 2008 of secondary cancer. His principal publications are Mortars, Plasters and Renders (EASA, 1983, most recent revision 2006), Practical Building Conservation volumes (with Nicola Ashurst, English Heritage, 1988), Conservation of Building and Decorative Stone (with Frank Dimes, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1990), and Conservation of Ruins (Butterworth- Heinemann, 2007). His most recent work was revising and editing the Practical Building Conservation volumes for English Heritage. Everywhere but Savile Row John was always in demand. He was a one-man research and technical advisory service, whose expertise spanned all the materials encountered in historic buildings and monuments – although his first love was undoubtedly stone. His sound, measured advice, delivered with assurance and a personable smile, was second to none. He was much sought after, and one question was frequently asked in Savile Row, where his English Heritage office was located: ‘What is the difference between John Ashurst and God?’ Answer: ‘God is everywhere; John is everywhere except Savile Row’. He was an outstanding teacher, although better at the one-off lecture than the sustained delivery of a lecture course. His brief employment at Bournemouth University, with its demands of regular lectures and inflexible deadlines, fitted him less well than opportunities for travel and for giving advice on individual buildings. It was always a privilege to work with him on site. His insight into problems, coupled with his willingness to learn from other disciplines, enabled him to give the practical, down-to-earth advice for which he was renowned. John was not a prolific writer, although he attempted to condense some of his expertise into the English Heritage technical advisory notes, which later metamorphosed into the five volumes of Practical Building Conservation, still highly regarded. His first book, Stone Preservation Experiments (co-authored with Brian Clarke in 1972), was less in demand: few people needed to read beyond the introduction with its memorable sentence, ‘These experiments have shown that none of the treatments has had any overall beneficial effect in retarding decay on any of the sites’. But the book was seminal. In its conclusions, John recommended ‘a study of methods of deep impregnation of stonework’. This opened the way for the research into deeply-penetrating consolidants that has influenced stone conservation ever since. His last book, The Conservation of Ruins, will serve as a monument to him for many years. John was an actor, and he could play to a committee just as successfully as to an amateur dramatic society. When I congratulated him once on his performance at a particularly searching meeting of the Ancient Monuments Advisory Committee, he shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘It’s just acting’. He was never at a loss for words, and his calm confidence was convincing and assuring. At the same time, he did not seek the limelight, as was demonstrated by his involvement with the Rose Theatre. Despite all the publicity regarding the excavation and conservation of the site, there are few people who know that it was John who designed and specified the capping for the site, on a single sheet of A4 complete with drawings. John was an enormously influential figure in the conservation of buildings and monuments. He will be greatly missed, not just for his unparalleled expertise, but also for his kindliness, his Drawing by Rob Cowan
10 C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 warm manner and his good humour. Clifford Price is emeritus professor of archaeological conservation, University College London, and former head of the ancient monuments laboratory, English Heritage. Man of stone I first met John Ashurst in 1974 when, as a student architect, I was awarded a bursary to study masonry conservation at a Men of the Stones seminar in Northamptonshire. John lectured eloquently for most of Saturday while the audience’s notebooks filled with page after page of jottings on the geology, mineralogy, quarry working, stoneyard processing, laying, decay and repair of stone. Over the tea break, I plucked up the courage to ask the great man how I could get a job like his, working with ancient monuments. His answer was friendly but not encouraging. But he proved an enduring inspiration for years to come. Later, when working in the Historic Buildings Division of the Greater London Council and confronted by technical issues upon which the textbooks seemed to have no reasonable answer, Iain McCaig and I would bitch over a pint (or three) that we could never get hold of the bastard. ‘We’ll have to learn this stuff for ourselves,’ we agreed, and set to it with determination. Taking short courses at the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies at York, or attending the Building Conservation diploma classes at the Architectural Association, we students of Ashurst quickly learnt the patter and most of the content from his oftrepeated talks and much loved visits – so much so that he once bribed me with a bottle of wine not to ask him questions at the end of his presentation about the cow contraceptive treatment for masonry (it’s a long story). Soon afterwards, Iain found himself working in John’s Research and Technical Advisory Service team and discovered why the telephone always rang and rang in Savile Row, and was only ever answered by the tea lady. ‘John who, darling? Nah, never heard of ’im dear.’ He was never there. He was out gently guiding architects and craftsmen on building sites – where his heart really lay. Then when I joined English Heritage and became John’s boss (16 years his junior), we found his telephone face-down in a drawer smothered with six volumes of Yellow Pages. Pushing paper and dealing with the endless calls for free advice were never John’s thing. We owe it to Bob Chitham, then directing architect of English Heritage, to co-authors and editors, Nicola Ashurst and Frank Dimes, and draughtsman McCaig that John published much at all. They chased, cajoled and ultimately bribed him, or did the writing or drawing themselves to get the genius out of the man and on to paper. This is not to say that his written and drawn communication skills are not convincing in their own right. Ashurst’s exemplary working diagrams have an illustrative force that cannot be underestimated, and would need a very large number of words and pictures (before, during and after the intervention described) to otherwise explain what is intended. Of course, with every generation there comes a tiny bit of plagiarism (remember the grouting pans and cored masonry walls): John’s lineage harks back to the writings and drawings of his predecessors, Frank Baines and especially FS Jack in the Ministry of Works. By the time John’s last book The Conservation of Ruins was published, I suppose he had started to see his own life in perspective, with an end probably in sight. The first few pages are stacked full of gracious acknowledgements to those who had touched his professional life: architects, scientists, archaeologists, historians, conservators and his beloved craftsmen. Although he was an intensely private person, we have all been touched by John. His books and we are his enduring legacy. John Fidler, based in Los Angeles, works at Simpson Gumpertz and Heger, consulting engineers. He was formerly the conservation director of English Heritage. The four virtues I have happy recollections of John Ashurst from many periods of my life. The first was when I worked for the Council for the Care of Churches and formed a small task group to investigate the use, decay mechanisms and conservation of marble in English churches and cathedrals. The key members were Ken Hempel, then senior sculpture conservator of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and John Ashurst of the ancient monuments branch of the Ministry of Public Building andWorks. It struck me immediately that John’s contributions had four outstanding virtues: clarity of expression, such that it was not difficult to understand what he was saying, and you could not feel excluded from the argument; caution, no doubt inculcated by the prevailing culture at that time in government ministries; modesty and charm, with his engaging hair lick; and a reluctance to be drawn into unnecessary controversy. Those virtues were even more to the fore in the two great cathedral conservation programmes of the 1970s and 1980s, monitored by, respectively, theWells Cathedral west front committee and the Exeter Cathedral technical advisory committee. These two committees were especially important at the time in being multi-disciplinary in a way that is now accepted as the norm but was then revolutionary. We were committees which knitted together the knowledge and skills of the dean and his home team, including the cathedral architect – with a healthy mixture of architects, archaeologists, art historians, conservators, and local historians. The world of academe met the burgeoning world of conservation. John gradually shared more and more freely what experiments and evaluations of stone conservation techniques were going on in the ministry and later English Heritage. My third and particularly happy memory of him was when seven of us were invited by the German parliament to visit the Offices for the Protection of Historic Monuments in several different German states. This involved a fortnight of intensive travel and debate, both with our German hosts and among ourselves. I witnessed a more light-hearted, convivial, side of John than I had seen before – happy with a glass of wine or beer in his hand to have animated conversations about aspects of heritage conservation philosophy and practice. I have memories of him too as an outstanding lecturer on aspects of stone conservation, in particular at the annual study week devoted to stone conservation at The King’s Manor,York, when I was responsible for conservation studies. Here he needed to be both a team player and also a star. His images and his gentle, persuasive mode of presentation were impeccable. It was also intriguing to observe how, starting from a cautious beginning, he gradually became a powerful advocate of the lime revival, and of the whole vital business of analysing mortars and then using appropriate mortars for pointing and other aspects of building repair works. In that respect it
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