C O N T E X T 1 7 3 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 61 seemingly illogical) decisions and recommendations made by heritage professionals. The equitable balance in the book between theory and practice is achieved by the complementary backgrounds of the two authors. John Pendlebury is an experienced academic who has also worked as a local authority conservation officer. Jules Brown is an experienced conservation practitioner, who has also lectured on the management of the historic environment. It is unclear who wrote each chapter, but they have a consistency of approach and style.The language throughout is clear and legible, avoiding excessive jargon. Reassuringly, the authors are both members of the IHBC, although this is not clear from the book itself and, somewhat disappointingly, the IHBC gets only a brief mention in the introduction – as the relevant professional body, despite its crucial role in maintaining standards and its growing influence in policymaking. The practicality and usefulness of the book is assisted by the inclusion of critical illustrated case studies, albeit they can only scratch the surface of the vast complexity of situations that are faced in day-today heritage management.The book concentrates on conservation in England, but it is set in the context of conservation as an international activity, with references to Unesco and ICOMOS charters and international case studies. It touches on the concept of the historic urban landscape and contemporary human values, including the impact of Black Lives Matter on attitudes to the monuments to the great and the (not so) good. It includes the fascinating case study of the Hall of Clestrain on Orkney, which well illustrates the frequent philosophical dilemma of deciding what era an evolved and altered historic building should be restored to (if at all). The stock answer to the dilemma is of course that all decisions should be based on an understanding of the significance of a building, although this does not always result in a consensual decision. The book addresses the philosophy of the crucial issue of managing change. It summarises the SPAB approach and states: ‘SPAB principles still have salience, but much practice has deviated from strict implementation’. It recognises that heritage practitioners have competing pressures: balancing the objectives of strict conservation principles with the wider objective of facilitating a viable adaptive re-use of an individual historic building, which can help both to sustain it into the future and contribute to broader urban regeneration. The optimistic foreword says the book aims to help us ‘to consider how best to preserve sensitively the best of the past, in ways that allow us to continue to build and improve attractive areas’. It is a starting point towards that laudable objective. John Hinchliffe, Hinchliffe Heritage The age of sail Chatham Historic Dockyard: world power to resurgence Neil Cossons (editor), Liverpool University Press for Historic England, 2021, 136 pages, 18 black and white and 84 colour illustrations, ISBN 978 1 800859 49 4, £19.95 To many people the former Royal naval dockyard at Chatham plays second fiddle to better-known Portsmouth and Plymouth. However, unlike its south-coast cousins Chatham has been a wholly redundant naval base since its closure in 1984. To those who know their history, Chatham’s slow decline in the 19th and 20th centuries is in part due to a shift in threat from mainland Europe – from the French, and especially the Dutch who notoriously sacked the fleet at Chatham in 1667, to the Mediterranean seaboard and then the Atlantic. After nearly 40 years since its closure, it is instructive to look back at how this once premier facility has survived and turned itself into a successful heritage site, celebrating what has been described as ‘the most complete dockyard of the age of sail’. For that is the importance of Chatham – sail, not steam, diesel or nuclear power. Its final, somewhat ignominious years were given over to the maintenance of the nuclear submarine force. This is a slim volume but none the worse for that. Beautifully illustrated with both contemporary photographs and a wealth of sometimes breath-taking archival material, it is composed of six substantial essays by experts in the subject area such as historians Andrew Lambert and Jonathan Coad, and key heritage professionals involved over the last 40 years. These include
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