Institute of Historic Building Conservation No 124 May 2012 The transport heritage
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C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 1 Cover: Farmer’s Bridge Locks – historic waterway engineering in the heart of Birmingham (see page 11). (Photo: English Heritage) Institute ofHistoricBuildingConservation No 124May 2012 The transport heritage Editorial Transports of delight www.ihbc.org.uk Registered as a charity in England andWales number 1061593 and in Scotland number SC041945. Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England number 3333780. Registered Office: 3 Stafford Road,TunbridgeWells, Kent TN2 4QZ. Officers President Trefor Thorpe email president@ihbc.org.uk Chair Jo Evans email chair@ihbc.org.uk Vice Chair Sheila Stones email vchair@ihbc.org.uk Secretary Eddie Booth email secretary@ihbc.org.uk Treasurer Richard Morrice email treasurer@ihbc.org.uk Membership Secretary Paul Butler email membership@ihbc.org.uk Education Secretary John Preston email education@ihbc.org.uk Publicity Secretary Doug Black email publicity@ihbc.org.uk Law & Practice Coordinator vacant email law@ihbc.org.uk Director Seán O’Reilly email director@ihbc.org.uk Projects Officer Fiona Newton email projects@ihbc.org.uk Consultant Consultations Coordinator James Caird email consultations@ihbc.org.uk Membership Services Officer Carmen Moran email membershipservices@ihbc.org.uk Administration Officer Lydia Porter email admin@ihbc.org.uk Committee Chairs Policy Mike Brown email policy@ihbc.org.uk Membership & Ethics Paul Butler email membership@ihbc.org.uk Finance & Resources Richard Morrice email resources@ihbc.org.uk Education John Preston email education@ihbc.org.uk Communications & Outreach Charles Strang email communications@ihbc.org.uk Branch Officers North Geoff UnderwoodTel 0191 433 3435 NorthWest Crispin Edwards Tel 0161 474 2620 Yorkshire David Blackburn Tel 01943 603479 West Midlands Charles Shapcott Tel 0121 7044312 East Midlands Roy Lewis Tel 01636 619335 South Julia Foster Tel 01296 585888 SouthWest JamesWebbTel 01202 732849 East Anglia Phil Godwin Tel 01263 516131 South East Sean Rix Tel 01483 523379 London David McDonald Tel 020 8881 6724 Scotland Stuart Eydmann Tel 01506 775279 Wales Nathan Blanchard Tel 01492 583443 Northern Ireland Colin Hatrick Tel 028 9064 1126 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 admin@ihbc.org.uk Briefing 2 Out of Context 4 The writer’s voice 4 Periodically 5 Supporting columns 8 Canal history in the making Nigel Crowe 11 Training the gang Kevin Malone 15 Britain’s transport heritage Neil Marshall 16 Moving with the times Elizabeth McCrone 18 Monitoring for Crossrail Nigel Sunter 22 The motor car and the country house Pete Smith 24 Off the rails Fiona Newton 27 A future for historic signal boxes Andy Savage 31 The Green Deal is coming John Preston 35 Historic statuary at Trent Park ChristineWhite and Rupert Harris 37 Architecturally speaking 39 Director’s cut 42 Vox pop 44 Book reviews 45 Products and services 49 Advertisers index 52 Nothing shapes the landscape like the technology of transport. Roads and streets laid out hundreds of years ago shape the distribution of modern settlements, and also much of the layout of their development, even though the vehicles that run on them today are dramatically different. The boom in English canal building, using an ancient technology on a hugely expanded scale, was soon overshadowed by the railways, but the infrastructure survived to find new uses today. (Nigel Crowe writes about the latest form of its management on page 11). The railway system in turn shrank in the face of developments in road transport in the mid-20th century, but continues to adapt to new technologies, leaving its own distinctive heritage (as Andy Savage describes in his article on mechanical signal boxes, page 31, and Fiona Newton discovers in her examples of redundant railway carriages ingeniously reused as houses, page 27). Sometimes it is the glimpses of the impact of new technology that are most fascinating. Pete Smith (page 24) writes that an early effect of the coming of the motor car was – not surprisingly – to make the landed classes more mobile, changing the pattern of weekend house parties, with King Edward VIII an early adopter. As Smith explains, some of the motoring-related heritage that survives from this period relates to the facilities – workshops, heating, electricity and the storage of spares – that were an essential part of a car’s garaging in the short period before a network of commercial garages developed. No doubt the pioneers also had to keep supplies of fuel at home, as recently recommended by our own government. Elizabeth McCrone, writing about Scottish buildings associated with transport from the 18th to the 20th centuries (page 18), describes an exceptionally early purpose-built public garage in Glasgow, dating from 1906–12. Likely to be the earliest surviving example in Scotland, this building is even more remarkable for having two storeys, with a ramp for cars to reach the first floor. Intriguingly, McCrone notes that the reason that owners required somewhere to store their vehicles was because parking on the street was prohibited in the early 1900s. Parking on the street! As Crossrail also asks, as it tries to anticipate the consequence of its tunnelling under London’s historic buildings (as recounted by Nigel Sunter, page 22): whatever next?
2 C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 Briefing Context Editor Rob Cowan Editorial Coordinator Fiona Newton 21 George Street, Louth, Lincolnshire LN11 9JU Tel 01507 602567 email editorial@ihbc.org.uk Editorial Board Fiona Newton (chair) Nigel Crowe (main features) Peter de Figueiredo (book reviews) Michael Taylor (main features) Cartoons by Rob Cowan Context is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2012 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 context@cathcomm.co.uk www.buildingconservation.com Non-member subscriptions to Context Context is available to corporate bodies at an annual subscription rate, including postage, of: United Kingdom £60.00 Elsewhere £90.00 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. Copy deadlines Context is published five times a year, in March, May, July, September and November.The remaining copy deadlines in 2012 are: July, Issue 125 14 May September, Issue 126 16 July November, Issue 127 17 September Althorp’s new face A £2.5 million restoration programme for the Grade I listed Althorp, famous as the former home of Diana, Princess of Wales, has included renewing its mathematical tiles. These had been placed over its facade to create the impression of brickwork in the enlargement by the architect Henry Holland (1745–1806), hiding the red brick of the earlier 16th century building. The mathematical tiles are laid in an overlapping pattern, with the thicker, lower section remaining visible and the upper section hidden beneath the row above. Attached to the underlying structure, they are tuckpointed to form a flat surface. For this restoration, tens of thousands of stainless steel fixing pins were inserted before being lime pointed to keep the tiles in place. Giles Quarme and Associates was the architect for the restoration andWilliam Anelay the contractor. New life for Tyne tunnels Planning permission has been granted for a £4 million refurbishment of the Grade II-listed Tyne Pedestrian and Cyclist Tunnels which pass under the River Tyne between Howdon and Jarrow. The tunnels were opened in 1951 as Tyneside’s contribution to the Festival of Britain. At their peak around 20,000 journeys were being made through them every day. Today only around 20,000 journeys are made through the tunnels every month. The biggest change will be the replacement of two of the four original escalators with glass inclined lifts (all four of the original escalators are now permanently out of service). The other two original escalators will be left in situ, opened up to public view. The tunnels, which included the UK’s first purpose-built cycle tunnel, were the earliest to be used by both cyclists and pedestrians. The two run in parallel, the pedestrian tunnel with Althorp: mathematical tiles hide the red brick of the earlier 16th century building. TheWaygood-Otis escalators are the world’s longest continuous wooden escalators.
C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 3 a 10 ft 6 in (3.2 m) internal diameter and the cycle tunnel with a larger 12 ft (3.7 m) internal diameter. Both tunnels are 900 ft (274.5 m) in length, 40 ft (12.2 m) below the river bed. Only very minor alterations have been made to the surface buildings, escalators and tunnels since the 1950s. The tunnels are served by twoWaygood Otis wooden tread escalators and a vertical lift on each side of the river. The wooden Waygood-Otis escalators, with their original motors and machinery, are rare survivals, and are the longest continuous wooden escalators in the world. Capita Symonds is leading the design team for the project. Four horses Wellington Arch on London’s Hyde Park Corner has reopened as an exhibition space. The Quadriga Gallery will host a series of exhibitions that will explore the history and heritage of England. The Arch will also house a new permanent exhibition telling the history of this London landmark. Wellington Arch was built in 1828 as a grand outer gateway to Buckingham Palace and as a victory arch to commemorateWellington’s defeat of Napoleon. In 1883 it was dismantled and moved some 20 metres to its current location, becoming London’s smallest police station. The Quadriga Gallery is named after the enormous bronze sculpture (the largest in Europe) of the Angel of Peace and her four-horsed chariot which crowns the monument. The pod has landed The renovation of Grade I listed St Lawrence Church, in Alton, Hampshire, has incorporated a pod containing toilets, a kitchenette and vestry, with an outer glass skin. This was chosen as an alternative to extending the building. The glass installation was designed and constructed by architectural glass artist Derek Hunt. The church, which dates back to around 1070, played a role in the Battle of Alton in 1643 in the English Civil War. After two hours of the battle raging outside, around 80 Royalist soldiers were forced into the church itself. It is claimed that Colonel Bolle was fatally wounded in the pulpit. The south doors of the church still bear the scars of the musket balls fired by the Parliamentarians. Faith in maintenance A scheme to create a network of informed community groups dedicated to the care and repair of historic buildings used as places of worship has supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The aim of the Maintenance Cooperative Movement is to connect, encourage and support volunteers across the country who are largely responsible for looking after local landmarks. Building on the success of its HLFbacked Faith in Maintenance Project, SPAB (Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) has received initial support from the HLF – including a development grant of £67,900 – for a successor scheme designed to create and sustain a series of local maintenance cooperatives. These will link groups of people caring for places of worship and encourage them to work together to tackle common problems. Heritage crime The first comprehensive survey on the effect of crime on England’s historic buildings and sites, commissioned by English Heritage, shows a worrying rate of damage. The survey estimates that some 70,000 listed buildings – 19 per cent of the stock of listed buildings in England – were physically harmed by crime last year. For some 30,000 listed buildings – eight per cent of the stock – the damage was substantial. Churches and other religious buildings face the greatest threat, with 38 per cent damaged by crime last year. Wind scheme challenged The National Trust, English Heritage and East Northamptonshire Council have launched a joint legal challenge against planning permission for a wind farm on a site within a mile of a Grade I listed building and registered park and garden. After the local authority initially refused planning permission, the scheme was approved on appeal. The planning inspector who granted approval described the Lyveden New Bield site as ‘probably the finest example of an Elizabethan garden [with a] cultural value of national if not international significance’. The proposal is for four 126.5-metre wind turbines. Out of the rain A loggia has been erected at Kensington Palace as part of wider landscaping works. Made by Chris Topp, the cast-iron structure took almost 3,000 hours from start to completion on site and used 24 different patterns. The controversial loggia, designed by John Simpson and Partners, is a new entrance for the palace and a commemorative structure for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The pod at St Lawrence Church, Alton: an alternative to building an extension
4 C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 From The Trains We Loved by Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis (1947) were invisible, but if you woke in the small hours you had their occasional distant roar the other side of the ridge for company, and in the daytime there was the glorious occupationcrossing only half a mile away. On that crossing I learnt to flatten farthings into ha’pennies; there I learnt, without giving it a name, to recognise a Drummond T9 as the most beautiful engine at the age of two years and two months… Imagine, then, St Pancras on an early summer night of 1876! The place is familiar even to visitors out of the future. Gilbert Scott’s façade of proud and shameless Victorian Gothic, and Barlow’s incomparable roof, are just eight years old; nobody knows what blows will some day strike them from the unimagined air, or how they will survive those blows. No, this is the summer of 1876 and the Settle and Carlisle line has been open for all traffic since May Day. It is really an admirable thing, this new Midland Scotch express. Euston and King’s Cross have their eyes on it, for it is a much finer train than anything the North Western or the Great Northern can show as yet. The Midland, moreover, is competing with both; partnership with the Glasgow and South Western – the wee Sou’-West which nobody else in England took seriously – is getting Midland trains into Glasgow, while the North British has joyously double-crossed its East Coast allies and is running Midland expresses into Edinburgh by the Waverley route. Those were the trains we loved; grand, elegant and full of grace. We knew them, and they belonged to the days when we first gazed on the magic of cloud shadows sweeping over the Downs, when we first became fully aware of the smell of a Wiltshire village after rain, or when we first saw a Scottish mountain framed in a rainbow so vivid that no painter dare to try to record it; to the days when, unadvised and at random, we discovered and first read Jefferies’ Bevis. Those were the days when we first looked with the uncomprehending pleasure of early boyhood on a beautiful woman in a flowing BurnesJonesian dress, when we first heard with awed and incredulous delight the music of Elgar, and they were the days when the steam locomotive, unchallenged, bestrode the world like a friendly giant… Where the express had raced, the local ambled; where the express had played something like Schumann’s Arabesque on the rail joints, the local played a gentle pavan. It gave you time to study the outline of Wilton’s great Italianesque church, the thatched roof of Barford St Martin, the solemn line of the Downs and the lovely, lovely valley of the Nadder. And when at last we left it, there would be the same ponytrap with the same brown mare, the same ride to the same three-centuryold house with the pomegranate tree on the south wall. There the trains ‘By attacking a sub-sector of the economy that is difficult to quantify, in a move expected to be of relatively little benefit to the Exchequer, the government has abandoned its responsibility to the historic environment. this is particularly alarming since less than one week after the budget the government explicitly acknowledged ‘the wider social, cultural, economic and environmental benefits that conservation of the historic environment can bring’ in the new National Planning Policy Framework.’ From an industry-wide (including the IHBC) letter of representation urging the Chancellor of the Exchequer to reverse the decision to remove the zero rate of VAT on approved alterations to listed buildings announced in the budget. ‘The proposals will use the VAT regime to penalise further lowcarbon, high-skilled maintenance and regeneration opportunities – often community-based when they involve the heritage sector – in favour of high-carbon alternatives already readily funded through more mainstream industries that focus on demolition, disposal and new-build.’ The IHBC commenting on the government’sVAT changes. ‘Vital alterations to churches should not be compared to installing luxury swimming pools.’ The Church of England on theVAT changes. ‘“Greenest government” encourages refurb by adding VAT to listed building changes. Brilliant.Were they holding instructions upside down?’ Steven Bee on Twitter (@urbancounsel) ‘INTHE CONTEXT of the deeply damaging cap on philanthropy and the cap on community investment tax relief, this VAT change sends a terrible message about the government’s commitment to the big society and localism agendas.’ Sir Stephen Bubb of the Association of Chief Executives ofVoluntary Organisations
C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 5 Periodically When you see a window, what do you see – the frame or the glass? The answer should be both, but many practitioners spend so much time trying to ensure the conservation or replication of the correct framing that the importance, and historic and visual significance of the glass can be overlooked. As a fragile material it is particularly at risk of loss and incorrect replacement. The latest edition of the Journal of Architectural Conservation (Vol 18, No 1, March 2012) has a very informative paper by David Dungworth of English Heritage’s archaeological conservation and technology team on the characteristics of glass. It explains the results of Dungworth’s research into the chemical composition of window glass from different eras from the 14th century onward, particularly from the 17th century. He shows how a handheld, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer has the potential to analyse glass panes in situ, identifying historic glass of different periods without damaging it. If the optical characteristics of historic glass are correlated with its chemical composition, it becomes possible to assess its age and significance more accurately. This should help highlight the need to conserve it and protect it during refurbishment. The second paper, by Dante Vanoli of Purcell Miller Tritton Architects, presents an exemplary case study on the conservation and re-servicing of the Arab Hall at Leighton House, in Holland Park, London (listed Grade II*), undertaken between 2008 and 2010. The house was built over a 30-year period from 1865 for Lord Frederic Leighton (1830–96), a prolific painter and sculptor, noted aesthete and president of the Royal Academy. He used his personal collection of rare Islamic tiles and tesserae as the inspiration to create the Arab Hall as the decorative centrepiece of his house and studio. As the house remained open to the public, the conservation of these delicate materials had to take into account the requirements of continued public access. The availability of a comprehensive collection of primary documentary sources ensured that the refurbishment would conserve the existing fabric and where necessary reinstate Leighton’s original decorative conception. Some of the conservation work is illustrated in colour. The third paper demonstrates what could be called technology transfer – adopting technologies not previously associated with conservation for its benefit. Poul Larsen has been using a dielectric probe adapted from soil science to monitor the movement of moisture in brick masonry walls of Danish historic buildings over a five-year period. He explains how the probe can be adapted and calibrated to assist those considering similar investigations. The drawback appears to be the timescale needed to collect sufficient data to form an understanding of the processes at work. This may explain why so few similar studies are being undertaken in the UK or elsewhere. Larsen’s results illustrate both the long timescales needed for damp walls to dry out and the role salts play in that process. The benefits or otherwise of using limewater as a consolidant of limestones and plasters (introducing large volumes of water into historic fabric) and the difficulty in getting calcium carbonate to penetrate the stone sufficiently seems to lead to something of a polarisation of opinion among practitioners. One solution to these concerns appears to be the use of nano-lime, as this retains the inherent compatibility of limewater. As a consolidation technique it is gaining increasing acceptance, but its practical evaluation has not so far been well documented. The paper by Elizabeth Hirst and Paul D’Armada is therefore both valuable and a timely introduction to the material. It summarises the research on its use in consolidating important early-14th century wall paintings at the Grade I listed All Saints’ Church, Little Kimble, Buckinghamshire. The final paper, by Isobel Griffin and JimTate, extemporises on the heritage significance of defensive structures (also explored in Context, November 2011). The authors set out their analysis and proposals for its conservation of a second world war concrete air raid shelter at a former Royal Naval Air Station at East Stanton, East Lothian. The site, the National Museum of Flight since 1975, has been described as ‘the best preserved collection of airfield technical site buildings on probably the most complete second world war temporary airfield in Britain’. It was scheduled as an ancient monument in 1991. The shelter is not a particular rarity in itself, but it contributes significantly to the integrity and authenticity of the overall airfield. Conserving structures originally intended to be robust but with a short life expectancy is complicated, but clearly justified by their survival. The authors explain their detailed research to establish the mechanisms of the deterioration of this partly buried structure and the conservation options, guided by the parameters of the new British Standard for concrete repair, BS EN 1504. A wide range of engineering history subjects is covered by The Institution of Civil Engineers Proceedings on Engineering History and Heritage. Volume 165, issue EH1 (February 2012) is no exception. The edition carries four papers, two of which will be of particular interest to UK readers.
6 C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 In the first of these, Mark Gaterell explains the influence in the 1830s of the visionary eccentric romantic painter John Martin on the London sewerage system developed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette. Gaterell credits the great engineers of the Victorian era with developing and implementing projects of immense technical complexity and significance. It might seem fanciful to suggest that Martin’s almost messianic art of the 1820s portrayed the fate that would befall Londoners in cholera epidemics of the 1830s and 1860s. But the author considers that Martin’s artistic interests, his radical political stance and likely knowledge of the early campaigns regarding the poor water quality of the Thames, and the huge interdisciplinary exchanges that characterised the scientific and social scene of London at the time, made him well placed to foresee many of the problems to come. A number of Martin’s suggestions implemented after his death, including his idea of grand sewers running parallel with the Thames, are a tribute to the way in which he transcended the boundaries of art, architecture and engineering. In another paper,William Thomas Day recounts the history of maintenance and repair of the Menai Suspension Bridge up to 1938, when this complex engineering marvel was reconstructed by Dorman Long to carry the full spectrum of modern road traffic. Extreme local weather placed substantial demands on the original construction, but when completed in 1826 the bridge had the longest span in the world. It was a triumph for Thomas Telford, but he was not entirely happy with it following damage in high winds. Additional damage was suffered in 1836 and 1839 when the deck was virtually wrecked by a hurricane. The replacement timber deck survived until 1893, when a new steel deck was installed. Further repairs and modifications were re-evaluated in 1922 when it was recognised that the weight restrictions and carriageway width severely limited the use of the bridge. The robustness and durability of Telford’s original design, and his careful attention to detail, explain why replacement and repair could be accommodated. This is well illustrated in the reproduction of number of elegant contemporary engineering drawings of the structures and repair solutions. A third paper describes the ambitious construction of the 670-metre wide Kiev suspension bridge across the freeflowing River Dnieper by the British engineer Charles Blacker Vignoles for Tzar Nicholas I of Russia, commenced in 1846 and completed in 1853. A final paper by Matteo Porrino of ENSA in Strasbourg describes the development in 1896 in Budapest of the first continental underground electric railway. The urban 1871 development plan for the city was based on concentric rings and several large radial routes. These made implementation using a shallow buried track quite straightforward. In the 1970s complete reconstruction was carried out because of increases in traffic and construction of the underground network. In 1994-6 the railway was entirely refurbished. After more than a century, the project remains a delightful and perfectly integrated part of Budapest’s transport system. The theme of railways carries across to TheVictorian (No 39, March 2012), in particular the challenges of modernising the railways while conserving their heritage. Fifty years on from the demolition of the Euston Arch (and battles over St Pancras Chambers), it could be argued that it was Victorian railway architecture that defined the early Victorian Society. The rail network now comprises an immensely diverse stock of 380 listed stations, 60 listed signal boxes, 250 other lineside buildings, huge numbers of buildings of local townscape interest, and 43,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts, of which over 600 are listed. All this on a system which carries almost four million people every weekday. Responding to passenger needs and government initiatives relating to capacity enhancement will lead to significant changes to a large number of stations. They will have enlarged circulation routes, lifts, longer and wider platforms, and improved information systems and security measures – all in accordance with the railway regulations, codes and national standards, irrespective of heritage considerations. One heritage concern is the recent National Rail Operating Strategy. This will see the majority of existing signal boxes replaced by a small number of signalling centres (see the article by Andy Savage on p31 of this issue of Context). To address the high level of redundancy of boxes, Network Rail proposes early collaboration with heritage organisations to achieve the best outcome for all the parties – but without undue delay or maintenance liabilities on the company. It will be interesting to see where the balance of the heritage and operational considerations comes to rest. In the latest edition of C20, the magazine of the Twentieth Century Society (Winter 2012), the director Catherine Croft spotlights the MP for Blackpool North, Paul Maynard. Proud of his membership of the society, he has expressed concern in the House of Commons about the possible increased threat to 20th century buildings from the proposed National Planning Policy Framework, in all its ambiguous brevity. Maynard suggested that fellow MPs should not dismiss as ‘concrete eyesores in our constituencies’ buildings that are ‘fashionably unfashionable’ and which might well be the heritage of the future. He urged them to see beyond their own immediate ‘aesthetic impressions’ and
C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 7 look to the future positive potential of 20th century architecture. Croft naturally concurs but also emphasises why so much continuing effort will be required to maintain the integrity of the listed building control system against political erosion. This is a clarion call against the wilder recommendations of the Penfold Review and the philistinism of the Treasury. One case which Paul Maynard may have had in mind is the two failed attempts by the society (and the strong advocacy of English Heritage) to get Preston’s central bus station and car park listed. The magazine reports that, two years on from the first spot-listing attempt, this case may yet have a happy ending, with a potential change of approach by a more enlightened Preston City Council and strong local support for its retention. The society also gives a very good example of the potentially damaging absence of interim protection. The 1952–3 Kensington house by the important modern architect Leonard Manasseh (see Briefing, Context 123, March 2012) might have been better defended against the threat of demolition had heritage protection reform ever accelerated from its Methusaline pace. Prompt response by English Heritage to a spot-listing request led to the conclusion that the alterations left it short of the benchmark criteria for the listing of post-war architecture.Withdrawal of one application for demolition, refusal of two more, and a fourth recent application prompted the society to speculate how differently the case might have turned out had interim protection been introduced. In addition to regular newsletters (too informatively compendious and varied to be reviewable here), the Ancient Monuments Society publishes an annual set of Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society. Volume 56 (2012), running to 140 pages, is an excellent justification for membership, beyond supporting the society’s excellent work. It is one of the few heritage publications able to carry extended articles, with a bias more towards architectural history than to aspects of more day-to-day professional practice. The five long essays are all worth highlighting. Nick Molyneux, English Heritage west midlands team leader, has written a 24-page illustrated introduction to the architectural history of Hartlebury Castle, the site of the palace of the bishops of Worcester from the middle ages until 2008. An active campaign aims to keep the building in public hands and is fund raising through a preservation trust set up specifically for the purpose. The work of building preservation trusts also features strongly in an article by Anthony Rossi. He describes the context, significance, decline and complex repairs necessary to effect the recent rescue of two great 16th century barns at Paston andWaxham near the northeast Norfolk coast. One telling illustration shows the collapse of the east end at Waxham following the hurricane of October 1987 and the parlous state of the building before the repairs undertaken by the North Norfolk Historic Buildings Trust. Themes of rescue and regeneration are carried over into the following article. Edward Holland of the Prince’s Regeneration Trust explains ambitious proposals to repair and reuse Cardigan Castle. This iconic medieval complex, the site of the very first Welsh eisteddfod in 1176, sits in the centre of the town. Ceredigion County Council acquired the castle in a state of severe dereliction in 2003 before transferring it to Cadwgan building preservation trust. Its proposals are now well under way, with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Architectural Heritage Fund, Cadw, the Welsh Government and the European Regional Development Fund, to create a Welsh Language and Learning Centre and a visitor destination, and to generate income through the creation of holiday cottages, a café/ restaurant, and business and craft units. A highly informative and interesting paper by Judy Allen of Julian Harrap Architects explains the philosophical issues, discoveries and new design initiatives undertaken during the £4.5 million conservation of the Monument (to the Great Fire of London) between 2007 and 2009. The very popular landmark attracts 150,000 visitors a year. The article describes preparation works prior to the contract, the approach taken to the repair work and new interventions. It is a highly informative coda to an article by the same architect on the same subject, which appeared in the Journal of Architectural Conservation in November 2009. Readers with particularly good memories may recall this reviewer’s enthusiasm for a largely photographic essay by RobinWyatt in the ASCHB Transactions 2002–3 (Vol 27), highlighting the creeping change to the vernacular architecture of the Cotswolds based on a comparison of current photos with those of the same buildings taken 100 years ago. This vernacular tradition has now been examined by Stephen Hart, this time from the perspective of comparing the limestone buildings of the Cotswolds with those of the Nene andWelland Valleys in Rutland and north Northamptonshire. Hart has used his field observations to test whether traditional building techniques in two different localities with essentially similar geology resulted in houses, cottages and farm buildings with common characteristics. He concludes that despite a similarity of indigenous materials some distinctively specific architectural details have evolved in each – something not hitherto recognised in published sources. The paper emphasises the need for care and close observation to ensure that local distinctiveness is maintained. Bob Kindred MBE
8 C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 Supporting Columns My years in conservation Ian Hume, who confesses to being a ‘fairly ancient’ conservation structural engineer, reflects on a long career, and regrets that common sense is no longer all that common. This the story of how failing the 11+ entrance examination to the local grammar school led to some 8th century Hindu temples in Cambodia and toWestminster Abbey, by way of a multitude of fascinating buildings and structures. My family tree has a fair sprinkling of carpenters, masons and builders (plus the occasional publican and draper), so perhaps the building trade is in the genes. Going to a secondary modern school rather than a grammar school led to learning technical drawing, and gaining a strong urge to become a draughtsman. Nobody from my school went to university, so on leaving school I went into employment with the Ministry ofWorks as a student draughtsman. I did a day release course at what was then the Brixton School of Building. The first tasks of a student draughtsman were learning how to print neatly (I never really mastered that), and how to draw in pencil on tracing paper and on tracing linen in ink, all for £2 13s 4d (£2.67) per week. Dad thought I was overpaid. College studies included the design of reinforced concrete and structural steelwork buildings, using the relatively simple analytical methods that existed in those days. Slide rules were used, calculators unheard of and computers decades away.Those simple thought processes of how structures work and the straightforward analytical techniques have stood me in good stead over the years. Getting complicated in thinking about structural analysis of buildings has never seemed to me like a good thing or indeed, except rarely, necessary. Nothing built before about 1860 was designed in the modern structural sense. Even after that, analytical methods were straightforward. Structures were built by people who understood by experience, and by quite simple thought processes, how they worked and how far they could push the limits.That is not to say they were simple people. Far from it. Clearly the people who developed the great gothic cathedrals,whenmost folkwere living in very rudimentary homes, were far sighted and clear thinking.Their designs were based on a clear understanding of the strength of materials and of how forces flowed around walls, vaults and buttresses, and on into the ground. A computer can not do much better when one bears in mind that a small parish church, let alone a great cathedral, is composed of countless small elements of stone of a multiplicity of shapes bedded on mortar of various qualities and thicknesses. It is impossible to model all this in a computer. Any results emanating from computers can be no more than a guide to the stresses that arise. We can now analyse the stresses in timber beams to umpteen places of decimals. But we come to more or less the same conclusions on the size of joists in domestic buildings as we did when all we had to do was measure the span in feet, call it inches, divide by two and add one inch.Thus a 12-foot span joist was seven inches deep (12 divided by 2 = 6 plus 1 = 7"). Sorry to all you metricated people, but it only works in feet and inches. (See ‘Floor loadings in historic buildings’, Context 70, June 2001). Not long ago I was asked to look at proposals for repairs to a major monument in south east Asia. A great deal of computer analysis (many tens of thousands of dollars’ worth) had been done on a structure which had stood the test of time and the elements for about 800 years.The results were seriously impressive visually but made very little impact on decisions for its future repair. The best way to repair the monument was to ensure that its original and successful construction details were maintained. I also studied traditional building construction. That no doubt proved to be almost totally useless for those in the class who spent all their lives dealing with modern structures, but it was invaluable to those of us who went on to deal with old ones. If we understand how a building or structure was put together, we can understand how it stands up, what might be wrong with it, where to look for possible problems, and what the best solutions to those problems might be. Learning about traditional building construction has helped me sound as though I knew what I was talking about when on site. I understood that kneelers are to be found in gable walls of a church as well as in the pews, No 2 Carlton Gardens, London.The decaying building had stood completely open to the elements for some 17 years.
C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 9 and that sprockets are part of a roof construction as well as in the gearbox of a car. People dealing with old structures need four things: a good understanding of how old buildings were put together; common sense; experience; and the patience to spend a great deal of time inspecting and researching the problems in hand. Each of these elements leans heavily on the other three. For example, common sense tells us that if pointing falls out, something harder will last longer. Experience tells us that it is rather more complex than that. Sadly, common sense is not all that common. Another part of the training for me and my five fellow student draughtsmen was three months on a building site.The other five went to new construction sites. I was sent to Number 2 Carlton Gardens, a then bombed-out John Nash house of around 1828 (now listed Grade II*) facing on to the Mall in London. I seem to recall being rather peeved by this. But how valuable that experience turned out to be in the long run. The decaying building, which had stood completely open to the elements for some 17 years, had massive outbreaks of dry rot, several levels of bonding timbers and the remains of a stone cantilever staircase. Cantilever staircases have fascinated me for many years, and this early introduction to them was invaluable. Although the bottom couple of treads were no more than stubs in the wall and the next few treads were damaged, the contractor’s staff used the stairs quite regularly. The built-in bonding timbers (if you do not knowwhat these are, please investigate further as you never know when you might come across them) were totally rotted. As they are completely enclosed by the wall material, they cannot be seen but being timber they provide a veritable motorway for dry rot to spread around the building.These much-decayed timbers had to be removed in the fashion of an underpinning exercise, short lengths at a time, and the resulting holes bricked up. The floors had mostly long since disappeared, so they were replaced in reinforced concrete, as was the stone staircase.There has clearly been a change in conservation policy since those far-off days. I do not recall what was done to the missing roof structure. I suspect that I had been sent back to the office by that stage. The dry rot was treated by flooding the whole of the wall construction with appropriate fluid. Even though the outbreak was so widespread, I doubt that such drastic treatment would be carried out today. Introducing concrete into historic buildings is generally not a good idea except for underpinning. Using modern materials in historic fabric can be risky if the long-term effects are not fully understood. I am reminded of a new wonder reinforcing material for concrete that I investigated in the 1970s. It worked well for about 10 years, then disintegrated suddenly because of some defect that no one had anticipated. I prefer to use the tried-and-tested technology of days gone by whenever possible. If we can copy something that worked well for a very long time, we know we are safe. Resins should be used sparingly and with great care in historic building work. In timber there is a risk that a flexible structure may be stiffened. Many of us are concerned about the longevity (remember we are thinking hundreds of years) of resins used as timber adhesives. A couple of years ago my wife and I went to a village church in Scotland for morning service, as we do whenever we are in that area.A newminister was leading the service, and as we left my wife asked her how she was settling in. She replied that she was settling in well but (even though she had no idea who I was) she said that there were major dry rot problems with one of her other churches and that repairs were going to cost £250,000. As the sermon had been about the various ways in which God speaks, I felt obliged to ask where they had got that advice – feeling that I already knew the answer. The upshot was that I visited the building, saw that there was a problem needing attention and advised that they seek advice from an expert timber surveyor. This was done and the work completed for about £15,000. Lessons 1.Simple techniques are usually the best when dealing with historic structures. Calculations often prove that the structure should never have stood up in the first place. This shows that the calculations are wrong or, more likely, that the wrong calculations are being done. If a structure has worked satisfactorily for many years, that is a guide as to how it should be maintained and repaired. 2.Understanding how the building is put together helps understand what makes it stand up and what might be wrong with it. 3.We never know where our lives are headed and when experiences will become valuable. 4.Do not let anyone tell you that cantilever stairs do not work and need to be demolished, or that you need calculations to prove they work. Meaningful calculations can not be done. 5.Dry rot outbreaks should be investigated by expert consultants rather than by a company with a product to sell. Ian Hume teaches conservation engineering. He was chief engineer at English Heritage from 1987–97 and a conservation engineering consultant until 2008. The remnants of a cantilever staircase at Penicuik House, Lothian, Scotland A fine example of a cantilever staircase (location forgotten)
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C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 11 nigel crowe Canal history in the making A new charity, the Canal and River Trust, is to manage the multi-designated heritage assets of the waterways through a nationwide heritage partnership agreement. Britain’s world-famous inland waterways deliver a host of public benefits. In 2012 the government will move the BritishWaterways-owned waterways in England and Wales out of the public sector into a new charity, the Canal and River Trust (CRT). £1 billion of investment supports this move, which will create a sustainable future for the waterways heritage and will enable local communities to play a greater part in how their local canal or river is run. It is Big Society in action: an historic moment. Inland waterways have been used for centuries in Britain, but only with the coming of the industrial revolution did they become serious, interlinking transport routes harnessing horse power and human ingenuity to carry heavy cargoes to and from local and regional markets.When the youthful Duke of Bridgewater opened his canal fromWorsley to Manchester, the price of coal in Manchester halved. Without the canal system, the industrial revolution would not have spread as far and as fast as it did. For all that, it took time, years usually, to build a canal. It was built using conventional methods: gangs of sweating men and horses, the line often broken into sections that went to local contractors. Later that changed and more technical, programme-built canals speeded up construction times. From the late 18th century onwards a loose network of separately owned river navigations and canals developed. Many continued to operate until the coming of the railways and beyond. These waterways dominated the industrial heartlands of England in the west midlands and north west in particular. Since 1963 BritishWaterways has been responsible for 75 per cent of the waterways in the UK. Now British Waterways itself is about to pass into history. Its legacy is one that should not be lightly dismissed. In the past 15 years or so, supported by the help and commitment of many other groups, it has made extraordinary progress in restoring and conserving our historic waterways. The heritage assets of the inland waterways in England andWales can be broken down into two broad categories: engineering structures and built structures. To give a sense of scale, CRT will own 2,000 miles of waterways, including 3,112 bridges, 1,569 locks, 53 tunnels, 370 aqueducts and 74 reservoirs. Significant numbers of these structures are designated. After the Church of England and the NationalTrust, CRT will be responsible for the third largest assemblage of listed buildings in the UK. Engineering structures typically range in date from the 1760s to the 1840s.The differences between the early pioneering structures and the later versions are easy to spot, as exemplified at sites like Harecastle Tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal. Apart from water, all of them had one thing in common: they were built around the horse. Harecastle Old and New Tunnels,Trent and Mersey Canal.The smaller tunnel was completed in the 1770s and took more than eight years to build; the larger tunnel took three years and was built in the 1820s. The new Canal and River Trust logo
12 C O N T E X T 1 2 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 2 Built structures of the waterways include those associated with the storage and transfer of goods, waterways maintenance, boat-building and boat repair. Other types include buildings for residential and operational use (like the small lock-keepers’ hovels), chapels, pubs and stabling for horses. Finally, along certain canals there are numerous defence structures, mainly dating from the second world war. After 200 years of use in many cases, how are these heritage assets being conserved and managed? Large numbers of waterways buildings and structures are still in use, many for their original purpose. They are real working heritage. The waterways may cater largely for the leisure industry, but it is a very important industry.Waterway-based recreation and tourism pumps £1.1 billion into local economies each year, and 91 per cent of the public views canals as being part of the nation’s heritage. It was not always like that. Since the 1950s, abandoned or little-used canals have been gradually restored, with huge volunteer effort. Although there is still more to do, this waterways renaissance has been a great success. In the 20th century, inland waterways were brought back to life and put back to work. In the 21st century they face different kinds of risk to that of complete abandonment. Isolated ‘buildings at risk’, like the NorthWarehouse at Sharpness (which is now being repaired) and the disused pumping station chimney at Widcombe Locks in Bath (which has recently been repaired), suffered past neglect. It was difficult to prioritise works to such assets when funding was tight. CRT will continue the work of BritishWaterways in reducing the numbers on heritage-at-risk registers (currently 26, down from 125 in 2005). Success stories like Gloucester Docks and the NavigationWarehouse inWakefield show the benefits of careful restoration and re-use of such buildings. Other pressures come from other aspects of 21st century life. Health and safety, which must always be paramount, sometimes requires alterations to historic engineering structures. Bridge bashing by larger-thanever cars and lorries is now a regular occurrence, costing around £2.5 million in repairs each year.Theft, graffiti Right: BritishWaterways heritage advisor DavidViner and the Mayor and Mayoress of Bath at the reopening of theWidcombe Footbridge, Bath, following repairs NVQ3 heritage skills candidates working at a refresher lime mortars training day Left:Volunteers from the Guild of Bricklayers and BritishWaterways’ own heritage team spend a day working together at Fenny Compton brick kiln on the Oxford Canal.
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