Context 160 - July 2019

C O N T E X T 1 6 0 : J U L Y 2 0 1 9 3 The US Department of State has announced funding for the renovation of the Maison Gauthier Villa in Haiti through the ambassador’s fund for cultural preservation. The grant has been awarded for the restoration and rehabilitation of the former home of the celebrated Haitian dancer and choreographer Viviane Gauthier, who died in 2017. The project was initiated and originally led by the architect John McAslan. The house, in Port-au-Prince, is one of the finest examples of ‘Gingerbread’ architecture in Haiti. and churches with designs created by some of the best architects and designers, including George Frederick Bodley,William Morris and Charles Eamer Kempe. After Parr’s death in 1927, his granddaughter came to live in the house to look after her grandmother and stayed for the next 85 years. By 2009 the house was a mix of some very well conserved wall decoration and some badly deteriorating parts, eaten away by damp. In 2016, the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant for a two and-a-half year programme of conservation. Repairs to the building structure were undertaken to safeguard the interiors: windows were secured, drains fixed, brickwork repointed in lime and walls replastered. Internal works were undertaken to repair the damaged woodwork, remove modern fittings, install conservation heating, rationalise the lighting and upgrade the fire and security systems. The walls and their decoration were conserved and, in certain areas, the pattern was reconstructed. Five thousand items were packed up and then unwrapped, catalogued, cleaned and carefully put back into the house. The house is open to the public for guided tours, which can be booked on https:// davidparrhouse.org. Bringing tax maps to life Cheshire’s historic past is being unearthed using new aerial survey imagery matched to historic land use maps, held by Cheshire Archives and Local Studies. The aerial data, supplied by Bluesky and Getmapping as part of the Aerial Photography for Great Britain (APGB) contract with the Geospatial Commission, is providing a modern-day context for 19th century tithe maps. Now available online, visitors to https://maps.cheshireeast.gov.uk/ tithemaps/ can search by place, person or plot and discover detailed information about land ownership, occupation and use. The aerial photography can be viewed online alongside earlier aerial photography datasets and modern and historic Ordnance Survey mapping. These datasets provide context and change information for the digitised tithe maps. The Tithe Commutation Act 1836 established a procedure whereby tithes, previously paid by goods or produce, could be converted to money. This required the accurate mapping of all land parcels within a parish. The APGB aerial photography is also being made available within Cheshire’s desktop geographical information system (GIS) and public-facing web mapping application. Data covered by the APGB agreement, including high- resolution aerial photography for the whole of Great Britain, is available free-at-the-point-of-use to local government users across England andWales. A screenshot of Cheshire Tithe Maps online (Image: Bluesky)