Context 164 - May 2020

www.ihbc.org.uk @IHBCtweet Registered as a charity in England and Wales number 1061593 and in Scotland number SC041945. Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England number 3333780. Registered Office: Jubilee House, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6HA Officers President Mike Brown, president@ihbc.org.uk Chair David McDonald, chair@ihbc.org.uk Vice Chair Lone Le Vay, vchair@ihbc.org.uk Secretary Jo Evans, ihbcsecretary@ihbc.org.uk Treasurer Jill Kerry, treasurer@ihbc.org.uk National Office Director Seán O’Reilly, director@ihbc.org.uk Operations Director Fiona Newton, operations@ihbc.org.uk Consultations Coordinator consultations@ihbc.org.uk Membership Services Officer Carmen Moran, membershipservices@ihbc.org.uk Professional Services Officer Michael Netter, services@ihbc.org.uk Administration Officer Lydia Porter, admin@ihbc.org.uk Committee Chairs Policy Roy Lewis, policy@ihbc.org.uk Membership & Ethics David Kincaid, membership@ihbc.org.uk Finance & Resources Jill Kerry, resources@ihbc.org.uk Education Andrew Shepherd, education@ihbc.org.uk Communications & Outreach Dave Chetwyn, communications@ihbc.org.uk Branch Officers North vacant NorthWest Crispin Edwards, 07768 502363 Yorkshire vacant West Midlands vacant East Midlands RosemaryThompson, eastmidlands@ihbc.org.uk South Alison Davidson, south@ihbc.org.uk SouthWest vacant East Anglia vacant South East Sanne Roberts, southeast@ihbc.org.uk London Sheila Stones, 01223 582716 Scotland Paul Zochowski, 01620 827264 Wales John Edwards, 07796 440934 Northern Ireland Ken Moore, northernireland@ihbc.org.uk Republic of Ireland Cormac O’Sullivan, 00353 5677 62907 Thewarondamp Rethinking retrofit Assessingmoisture Curateddecay No164May2020 InstituteofHistoricBuildingConservation Cover photo by Jonathan Taylor C O N T E X T 1 6 4 : M A Y 2 0 2 0 1 2 Briefing 4 Writer’s voice 5 Out of Context 6 Periodically 11 Editorial 12 Assessing moisture in porous building materials Soki Rhee-Duverne 15 Rethinking retrofit Robyn Pender 18 Curated decay Matthew Slocombe 22 Conserving Burns Monument Kinlay Laidlaw 29 The Victorian new town of Birkenhead Michael Asselmeyer 32 Monumental fall from public consciousness Douglas Campbell 36 Manchester Town Hall: understanding significance Christina Sinclair and Rebecca Burrows 39 The Scots reed thatching tradition Matthew Price 42 My house:The Manor House, Bracondale 45 Notes from the chair 47 Director’s cut 49 Vox pop 51 Book reviews 55 New member profile 56 Inter alia 57 Products and services 60 Advertisers index