Context 168 - June 2021

C O N T E X T 1 6 8 : J U N E 2 0 2 1 7 Other diverse contributions include an investigation of the work of the prolific 17th-century Northamptonshire stonemason Sampson Frisby, following identification of his distinctive personal mason’s mark at Apethorpe Hall, and at Clare College, Cambridge and several significant country houses and churches; depictions of the Dance of Death inWelsh churches; and an excellent and lengthy review essay by the editor John Bold of the book by Merrell celebrating the completion of the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, written by Anya Lucas, Richard Johns, Sophie Stewart and Stephen Paine. ASCHB Transactions The latest ASCHB Transactions (Association for Studies in the Conservation of Historic Buildings, Vol 43, 2021), running to 92 pages, departs from the recent practice of concentrating in depth on specific historic British building projects to provide some wider but no less valuable insights and instructive pointers to professional practice. Two English case studies are well illustrated in colour, as has become customary. The first deals with the Grade II* listed town hall in Brackley, South Northamptonshire, constructed in 1704–1706 and situated within the Brackley Old Town Conservation Area. Tom Gibb gives a succinct history of this prominently located and beautiful small building. He explains the project’s aims of adaptation to address a range of physical repair issues to improve the long-term financial sustainability of the building, before describing its character and appearance in detail. Particularly interesting is the clear articulation of the operational energy and carbon emission strategies; the thermal performance objectives for specific building components; and the strategies to support the health and wellbeing of the occupiers and users for this highly-graded building. The author concludes by looking at how engagement with the users was conducted, and how the works, completed in 2018, rejuvenated the local community. The second case study also deals with a Grade II* listed building: the successful recent conservation of Sandycombe Lodge, Twickenham. This house was designed by the great 19th-century painter JMW Turner as his rural retreat. Prior to the recent project, the building might have passed for a ubiquitous, badly altered and extended Regency villa, not the design of one of the country’s most astute observers of the picturesque. Gary Butler explains the extensive research and investigations to uncover Turner’s original intentions, noting the strong architectural imagination working throughout the artist’s work and his conscious or unconscious acknowledgement of the work of his close friend Sir John Soane. With the high list grading and the historical associations, the conservation approach has been by what the author terms ‘creative demolition’. This included the removal of the obvious deleterious additions and interpretation of Turner’s sketch books and the architectural detailing of Soane. This paper is a well-explained and excellent example of applied scholarship as the antithesis of all-too-common conjectural restoration. The building is in the care of the Turner’s House Trust, a building preservation trust holding the building in trust for the nation. It is worth a visit. A useful primer on the recording and analysis of timber-framed vernacular buildings is given by Joe Thompson. He presents a pair of case studies to demonstrate how two buildings were dismantled, their components analysed for historical evidence, and moved and repaired at theWeald and Downland Living Museum, Singleton, West Sussex. One from the High Weald had been dismantled in 1974 by the Robertsbridge and District Archaeological Society in advance of a new reservoir. The other, near Tonbridge, Kent, was dismantled and moved in 2015 as mitigation works in advance of a Highways Agency road scheme. The author makes particular reference to understanding the significance of the buildings and to the wealth of evidence that may be observed from the timbers; their interpretation and the techniques used in the recording process, including the compiling of detailed spreadsheets. Given that the preferred approach to managing historic buildings is not to divorce them from their original context, this paper provides useful background where the only alternative to complete loss can be disassembly and successful re-erection elsewhere. One of the most thought- provoking papers in these transactions is by architect Colin Kerr. He writes about the practical application of aesthetics to architectural conservation and how this term fits in, not only with the philosophy of conservation, but with the chimerical concept of beauty by which we are given to understand the government will drive the processes and practical application of the planning process. Kerr defines some general definitions of aesthetics, including the ‘aesthetic values’ mentioned in BS 7913. He considers the role of good design and beauty before highlighting the need for conservation practitioners to analyse visual information under such terms as field of view, aschb transactions volume 43: 2021 ASSOCIATION FOR STUDIES INTHE CONSERVATION OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS