CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 53 three key construction stakeholders, Donald Insall Associates, William Birch and Son, and Heritage Masonry Contracts, were already working together and were able to integrate the trainees collaboratively. Integrating training into the works The Ionic Temple was surveyed in the spring of 2022, allowing time for the Tier 2 trainees to get involved in discussions about its significance and have a hand in deciding the works that they would be delivering in the summer. The architect then drew up plans for its like-for-like, repair-based conservation, which involved repointing the roof, high-level stone replacement, replacement of lead weatherings, trial cleaning of the columns and relaying the stone slabs comprising the base. Meanwhile, site mobilisation meant that by late July, project specifications, method statements and site procedures were in place for trainees to begin working safely and with minimal risk to the building. The eight comparatively experienced Tier 2 trainees spent a week at the site initially, allowing the architect and contractors to train them in the different activities. When they were joined by the Tier 1s and Tier 3s in the following two weeks, the architect split the group into three mixed-tier gangs, so that each included one of the more experienced trainees. The gangs worked in friendly competition on a circuit of three main activities (roof repairs, cleaning, The Camellia House in its at-risk condition (Photo: Historic England) autumn 2021, while four Tier 3s joined in April 2022 and seven Tier 1s in June 2022. This meant that 19 trainees were actively participating in the HBS programme during summer 2022, the planned date of the first live-site training. The site-selection process began before the HBS programme’s public launch. Using criteria that considered site location, condition, project status, traditional craft skills involved, owner enthusiasm for hosting training and the potential profile of the works, 15 sites in the north of England were shortlisted. Grade I-listed Wentworth Woodhouse was an early standout option because of the advanced stage of several projects, the breadth of possible works available, the commitment of the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust (WWPT) to developing heritage craft skills, and the site’s national profile. Early in discussions, WWPT advised HE’s HBS programme team that the restoration of the Camellia House, due to take place in summer 2022, presented an ideal site. WWPT’s professional team was already taking forward works to the roof, rainwater goods, windows, interior plasterworks and joinery, as part of converting the building into a tearoom. The two teams agreed to incorporate training activities into the planned works. Both teams recognised that while the Camellia House works were ideal for trainees to practice learning outcomes relating to reinstatement and adaptation, there was an even better opportunity for like-for-like repairs in the adjacent Ionic Temple, a Grade II*-listed building in need of extensive repairs to its substantial stone structure. It was also felt that incorporating so many trainees into such a complex project, itself part of a major National Lottery Heritage Fund supported project at Wentworth Woodhouse, would be challenging logistically. HBS funds were therefore directed at the Camellia House and Ionic Temple. Together, works at the two buildings would provide live-site experience in all key learning outcomes. There were clear practical advantages to working across the two sites. First, it was more straightforward to involve trainees intensively on the simpler Ionic Temple project, with its focus on like-for-like repair. Further, the advanced stage of the Camellia House project meant that procuring the construction team was already underway. WWPT could therefore negotiate the Ionic Temple works as an extension to the existing competitively tendered contract. As the intensity of training planned for the Ionic Temple lent atypical uncertainty to the construction programme, this negotiation reduced the risk of companies over or under-compensating for these requirements. It also meant that the Site plan showing the location of the Camellia House and Ionic Temple (Image: Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust 2018)
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