Context 152 - November 2017

4 C O N T E X T 1 5 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 Where transport history was made From David Rhodes, Harrogate Congratulations to all concerned with Context 151 (September 2017), reporting on the IHBC Annual School in Manchester. I really enjoyed the energy portraying the Manchester event and regret that I could not attend. It brought back fond memories of the 1970s and 80s campaigns in Manchester. Looking back over 50 years to the inspiration of the Civic Amenities Act 1967, it is inspiring to observe the growth of the civic amenity movement and the importance of the designation of conservation areas. Manchester initially designated specific conservation areas based on the cathedral, Albert Square and St Ann’s Square, among other places. I well remember that the Whitworth Street Conservation Area gave birth toWhitworth Village, a project managed byWarren Marshall, head of conservation and design. Later the numerous local conservation areas were merged into one city centre conservation area, absorbing the Castlefield designation. My one regret is that the unique George Stephenson Railway Station, Warehouse and Bridge over the River Irwell have never been designated as a world heritage site. On 15 September 1830, when the Duke ofWellington arrived at the Manchester Station and declared the Liverpool to Manchester Railway open, world social transport history was made.Today every rail passenger at every station in every country in the world relates back to that unique event, and that cluster of George Stephenson buildings in Manchester. So come on IHBC NorthWest, the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester City Council officers and planners, Historic England and Unesco: how soon can the these three remarkable buildings become a world heritage site? My final hope is that on 15 September 2030, when the station will be 200 years old, those involved will have as much fun as we did back in 1978–80 saving the site and celebrating in 1980 the 150th birthday of that remarkable world event. David Rhodes Crispin Edwards, IHBC NW vice-chair and branch representative, writes: Further to David Rhodes’ query, Manchester’s early railway sites have been the subject of consideration for world heritage status for some time. They formed part of the ‘Manchester: world’s first industrial city’ proposal, which was included in the UK’s tentative list submitted to Unesco in 1999. Unfortunately the proposal did not find sufficient local support for a nomination to be submitted. In 2012 the government’s review of the tentative list suggested that research could be undertaken to consider whether there was a case for Manchester’s and other early railway sites in the UK to be put forward as a serial world heritage nomination, and these sites were not included in the revised tentative list. In 2016 Historic England published a review of recent research on early railways, to help support this recommendation. The development of a serial world heritage nomination would be challenging and would need the support of an extensive range of partners. The IHBC NorthWest branch would offer whatever support it could to facilitate this. A further review of the UK’s tentative list is expected to begin in around 2019. Letter From Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community by Wendell Berry (1992) No settled family or community has ever called its home place an ‘environment’. None has ever called its feeling for its home place ‘biocentric’ or ‘anthropocentric’. None has ever thought of its connection to its home place as ‘ecological,’ deep or shallow. The concepts and insights of the ecologists are of great usefulness in our predicament, and we can hardly escape the need to speak of ‘ecology’ and ‘ecosystems’. But the terms themselves are culturally sterile. They come from the juiceless, abstract intellectuality of the universities which was invented to disconnect, displace, and disembody the mind. The real names of the environment are the names of rivers and river valleys; creeks, ridges, and mountains; towns and cities; lakes, woodlands, lanes roads, creatures, and people. And the real name of our connection to this everywhere different and differently named earth is ‘work’. We are connected by work even to the places where we don’t work, for all places are connected; it is clear by now that we cannot exempt one place from our ruin of another. The name of our proper connection to the earth is ‘good work’, for good work involves much giving of honor. It honors the source of its materials; it honors the place where it is done; it honors the art by which it is done; it honors the thing that it makes and the user of the made thing. Good work is always modestly scaled, for it cannot ignore either the nature of individual places or the differences between places, and it always involves a sort of religious humility, for not everything is known. Good work can be defined only in particularity, for it must be defined a little differently for every one of the places and every one of the workers on the earth. The name of our present society’s connection to the earth is ‘bad work’ – work that is only generally and crudely defined, that enacts a dependence that is ill understood, that enacts no affection and gives no honor. Every one of us is to some extent guilty of this bad work. This guilt does not mean that we must indulge in a lot of breast-beating and confession; it means only that there is much good work to be done by every one of us and that we must begin to do it. CORRECTION The IHBC would like to offer heartfelt apologies for any distress caused by an erroneous reference in our last issue to architect Stephen Levrant suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. His song about the disease was merely part of his comedy routine. Stephen is in perfect health and does not have Alzheimer’s Disease. We are very sorry for this misunderstanding, and sincerely apologise to Stephen, his family, colleagues and friends for the confusion and discomfort that this generated.