4 C O N T E X T 1 0 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 7 IHBC’s tenth anniversary From DavidWarren, London I was amazed to note that the IHBC has been around for only 10 years. My recollections of the early attempts to set up a national organisation had placed its creation much earlier. Context 100 (July) brought back many memories of the early years of the Association of Conservation Officers and the people involved. The purpose of this letter is two-fold: partly to fill in a few of the gaps in John Fidler’s contribution to the July issue, but mainly to bring to the institute’s attention an archive of conservation material which has been sitting in my garage for more years than I would care to admit. I first met John when he worked for the City of London and was keen to join English Heritage (or was it still the Directorate of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings?). He states modestly that he was appointed to tackle buildings at risk because of a tiny citation in the Montague Report. In fact, he is the only person I know who succeeded in recommending an additional role for the organisation and being appointed to fill it. I watched his ascent through the hierarchy with increasing admiration, to the point where he had taken on so many responsibilities that he asked to be demoted to enable him to concentrate on those aspects of conservation to which he was most devoted. I am sorry that John says nothing in his article about his career since leaving English Heritage except for the tantalising hints about his work as a consultant in Los Angeles and of his view ‘from the boardroom of ICCROM’s council in Rome’. Perhaps he could be persuaded to contribute a follow-up article about his subsequent and present activities. I remember him during my years with English Heritage as the most outstanding member of the most dedicated and talented group of people it was my honour to work with. I hope some young budding conservationist will produce a biography of his career while I am still around to read it. Now about that archive mouldering in my garage.When I joined the Letters… directorate in 1979 I had the good fortune to work under Brian Hennessey on a series of publications entitled Aspects of Conservation. Brian (who is sadly no longer with us) was a devoted academic. Between us we amassed a room full of publications relating to area conservation. This was perhaps the most enjoyable three years of my career. After that I was dragged kicking and screaming to work on grant aid and advice on major proposals in conservation areas for five years in theWest Country and a further ten in theWest Midlands. Brian also moved on to other work. The material we had amassed was shipped out to a warehouse in Acton. Sometime later, the chief executive, Ms Page, came to see me (she did not believe in summoning people to her office) and asked me about the material. I remember the conversation vividly. ‘Is it of any use?’ ‘Yes, it’s quite a valuable archive of conservation material from the 1960s and 70s.’ ‘Well, it’s got to go. It’s taking up valuable space.’ I asked her if I could take it off English Heritage’s hands, and finished up filling my car twice over with the stuff and dumping it in my garage. It remains there to this day. I have often wondered what to do with it (sell it, pass it on to an academic institute, throw it in a skip?). The IHBC seems to me the most suitable organisation to take charge of it, but I doubt if it has the facilities to store it so that it can be easily accessed by anybody wishing to research area conservation during that period. Do any IHBC members have any suggestions? Also of possible interest are some of the slides from the Department of the Environment’s collection. Brian and I needed some to illustrate our publications. I approached the DoE to see if we could borrow any, only to find that it had disposed of its collection.We eventually tracked it down to the Central Office of Information, but I found that we would be charged an exorbitant amount to borrow any.When I appealed to the section head, he told me that they were throwing 99 per cent (or maybe 98 per cent) of them away into a skip, and I could take whatever I wanted. I again loaded my car and brought them home. The slides turned out mainly to be of little general interest, such as 1960s tower blocks under construction. Having separated the more interesting ones (about five per cent), I passed the rest over to John Earle. He was rather ill at the time and probably became more so when I lumbered him with several dozen plastic bags of 35mm slides. I still have the few thousand I retained. Anyone interested? DavidWarren IFA disappointment From Peter Hinton, chief executive, Institute of Field Archaeologists In a typically thoughtful contribution to Context 99, JohnYates (Notes from the chair) reports on the recent work by the Professional Associations Research Network (PARN) on the potential for closer working between the IHBC and IFA (Institute of Field Archaeologists). He writes: ‘The conclusion of the PARN study is that a merger is not appropriate, but that there should be a liaison committee of the two institutes. IHBC council has welcomed this advice, but it must be admitted that the IFA at a senior level is rather disappointed.’ That statement could mislead. PARN concluded that a merger was not appropriate following a meeting of representatives of the two institutes’ councils at which IFA delegates indicated their wholehearted preference for exploring this option but the IHBC delegates said that they were not prepared to discuss this option with the IFA. Other factors might mean merger
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