•-- 4 EDITORIAL This issue, whose theme is 'Buildings and Craftsmanship' to coincide with this year's annual course organised by South Branch of ACO, has received much assistance from two of the course organisers, John Davey and Nigel Barker, who have commissioned or written much of the copy. There is therefore a certain bias towards the South in this issue. It is appropriate, as Nigel remarks in his introduction to the theme articles, that craftsmanship should be the theme in our 10th Anniversary year, when the Crafts Council was the venue for our first meetings under the auspices of the Craft Skills Register. By design rather than coincidence, Roy Worskett, who hosted those meetings, is our guest speaker at the dinner on Friday 22 March during the course (and I hope he is not polishing up some old jokes from 1981 for that occasion!) This issue of Context is the last under my Editorship; no, the Men in Suits have not been to see me, and it is highly unlikely that I will be spending more time with my family. However, I have been Editor now for seven years or so and I think it is time to hand the job on; I would like the rime to be able to do some writing myself rather than mainly being responsible for eliminating paragraphs of other people's prose in order to cram the copy into an affordable number of pages. One consequence of the polished format we now have, and of the themed issues, is that more people are volunteering to write - although still not enough from ACO. I will of course be very happy to talk to anyone who would like to offer (or is being pushed) to become Editor. A reasonable standard of literacy, some creative ideas and access to a telephone are the prime requirements; ACO has promised to provide a modest word processor for the paperwork, and the burden of translating a heap of scruffy typescripts into a coffeetable magazine is taken entirely by the publisher. You will gain fame and glory and invitations to press previews with free drinks just like the real hacks. It's almost too good to give up. SURREY GARDENS TRUST Efforts to form a Surrey Gardens Trust are about to bear fruit. An inaugural meeting was held in March 1990 at Chilworth Manor, Guildford, at which it was agreed to form a steering committee to work out the details of its establishment. The steering committee has the support of Surrey County Council and the Surrey District Councils, and its membership is made up of interested persons, some representing complementary organisations such as the Royal Horticultural Society, Garden History Society and National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens. The aims of the Surrey Gardens Trust will be to create widespread interest in parks and gardens of value, and of the need for their conservation and appropriate maintenance; and to carry out survey and research work into sites throughout the ADVERTISEMENT THE CONSERVATION PORTFOLIO In the March 1991 edition of the Portfolio are: CICO Chimney Linings Limited • Chimney lining by the cast in-situ system Historic Building Services Ltd - Scholarly restoration of historic buildings Keymer • Traditional hand made clay peg and oast house tiles J R Nelson Ltd - Specialist sawyers and fabricators of seasoned timber Sandtoft Tileries Ltd - Hand made clay roof tiles Tudor Roof Tile Co Ltd - Traditional hand made clay tiles County, 111 order to advise on practical restoration. The committee is already involved in a number of restoration projects which it is hoped will be underway by spring 1991. The official launch of the Surrey Gardens Trust will take place in May 1991, at Great Fosters, Egham, a Grade I listed hotel set in an outstanding garden on the English Heritage Register. Following storm damage in 1987, a restoration and management plan for the garden has been drawn up by Kim -#ilkie, and is now being implemented. An exhibition is planned for the launch setting out the aimsof the Trust and garden restoration projects already under discussion. A newsletter is being produced, and a programme of events including garden visits and lectures is planned for Trust members in the coming year. For further information on the Surrey Gardens Trust contact Brenda Lewis on 081-541 9419. ERRATUM: ISSUE 28 Due to injudicious cutting, the sense of Jane Grenville's summary of the Council for British Archaeology's attitude towards the ecclesiastical exemption was reversed. In the last paragraph of the first page of her article 'CBA and the Ecclesiastical Exemption', where some of the argument had been cut, the wrong conclusion came out - in fact the CBA supported the ecclesiastical exemption. The paragraph should therefore read as follows: The CBA's submission to the Commission in 1980 was good reading. It considers some of the principal objections to the FacultyJurisdiction (and answers some of them). Our recommendations to the FacultyJurisdiction Commission were for the retention of the ecclesiarical exemption, with some very strong provisos. The submission ended with a deliciously phrased threat: "If, however, the reforms we suggest are not comprehensively implemented, and if after a period it is clear that local waywardness and inefficiency persists, the CBA would need to reconsider its attitude towards the ecclesiastical exemption. Apologies to Jane for this error, and to anyone who was thereby misled about the attitude of the CEA.Jane has also written a letter concerning a recent public enquiry relating to ecclesiastical exemption - see Letters page. The Editor CONTEXT 29
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