12 C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 PETER AIERS St Barbara, patron saint of gutters ‘Stave off decay by daily care,’ William Morris urged. Innovative projects are following him in ensuring that churches are inspected and basic maintenance is carried out. In the past few years the sound of free-running gutters on historic places of worship has become louder, with innovative projects being created to ensure that this most basic element of building maintenance is undertaken. Places of worship across the land, most notably in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the Diocese of London and the Diocese of Gloucester, have been pioneering attempts to provide centralised gutter maintenance services to the parishes and volunteers who care for these magnificent buildings. Most historic churches in this country are looked after by volunteers who raise the finance, organise the work and tend to these buildings with an impressive commitment. It is easy to forget that these people do more to protect England’s heritage than any other volunteer body. It is important that the conservation profession, and those responsible for legislation and taxation, consider how it can help make good maintenance easily attainable and cost effective. While the conservation profession has power at its disposal to help prevent the loss of fabric by unsympathetic alteration and repair, there has not been much to offer back to the parishes and congregations to help them to maintain their buildings. Although the major grant scheme for places of worship provided by English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund does insist on a maintenance plan as a condition of the application, the grants can only help towards high-level repairs costing over £10,000. This is as it should be, but the real trick will be to ensure that the applications for major works are required only in instances where there is a problem not caused by a lack of basic maintenance. Is this perhaps a vision of the future? The benefits of regular maintenance are well known to all of those who work with historic buildings, the most significant being reduced repair liability, better planning of long-term repair conditions and early identification of problems. There is a clear message which the SPAB has been promoting with its annual maintenance week. ‘Stave off decay by daily care,’ as William Morris put it. This year National Maintenance Week begins on 21 November, and will culminate with National Gutters Day. This annual event makes the very important point that the need for maintenance does not go away. The IHBC and SPAB have published A Stitch in Time, a guide to building maintenance which can be found at www.ihbc.org.uk/ stitch_in_time.htm. Maintain our Heritage ran a pilot scheme, funded by English Heritage, in Bath between 2002 and 2003. The aim was to investigate whether a maintenance inspection service could be set up and run. The service was successful but it was mostly aimed at private property. The inspiration for the pilot was the Dutch system of care called Monumentenwacht whereby crafts people survey historic buildings equipped with materials and tools so that they can Rob Forrester of Forrester Access clears the gutters at Priory Church of the Annunciation, Inchbrook, Stroud for GutterClear, Maintain our Heritage’s scheme in Gloucestershire (Photos: Jonathan Taylor)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=