CONTEXT 177 : SEPTEMBER 2023 5 IHBC NORTH-WEST BRANCH CONFERENCE Adapting heritage to climate change At its conference ‘Adapting to Climate Change: heritage and its sustainable future’ in Chester Cathedral in April, the IHBC North-West Branch challenged Historic England to find common ground between conservation architects looking to place historic buildings at the centre of the climate challenge and conservation officers uncertain about the impact of change on listed buildings. Tony Barton, chairman of Donald Insall Associates, hosted the conference and opened with two messages he had received on the same day. A Grade I listed building in Yorkshire had received permission to replace its windows with double glazed units, yet pre-app advice for a Grade II barn conversion was that replacement glass should be single glazed. ‘Where are we?’ Barton asked Historic England’s strategic head of climate change, Clare Hedley. She responded that policy advice was forthcoming, in the form of a new Historic England advice note ‘Climate Change’, due later this year. Tim Stratford, the Dean of Chester, a scientist in a previous life, gave the conference sobering facts on the economic realities of heating and lighting the cathedral. Electricity and gas consumption had reduced by 15 per cent and 40 per cent respectively, but energy costs had nearly doubled. Staff had been provided with heated jackets and walking visitors were warm. But, as the conference discovered, sitting for any length of time was uncomfortable in a largely unheated cathedral. The cathedral plans to use two historic spaces for conferences Chester Cathedral, the ‘largely unheated’ venue for the IHBC North-West Branch conference (Photo: David Iliff, Wikimedia)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=