NEWS COMMENT Is a little self-satisfaction in order? We have reached our 50th issue and almost at the point when ACO reaches 15 years of existence. Well, actually that would be September, but ACO has never been characterised by that degree of formality! These are momentous times, particularly after the decision at the OxfordAGM to continue towards Institute status. This is covered by Mary King's Notes from the Chair elsewhere in this issue. prognosis is not quite as apocalyptic as presented in the April/May 1996 issue of Perspectives in Architecture. The encouragement and promotion of craft skills has no easy solutions and here ACO members can perhaps have less room for self-satisfaction. ACO was formed in a room at the Crafts Council and the preservation of craft skills and the fostering of high standards of repair for historic buildings has always been one of the most fundamental day-to-day concerns of Conservation Officers. Have our actions borne much fruit? Without the continuous development of training, the hands-on skills and experience of crafts-people and the knowledge transfer to the new recruits, all our professional expertise and all the policy making in the world will not protect our heritage. It is a matter we ignore at our peril. Although topicality is always difficult in a quarterly journal, we aim to continue to maintain the high standards the Association has set for Context as we more forward confidently on the long road toward Issue 100! ARE THE CRAFTSIN CRISIS? The answer must be yes, but perhaps the SELLINGON PROBLEM BUILDINGS? The Association of Preservation Trusts has introduced a new initiative to its BPT members which may also be of interest to Conservation Officers. This involves offering a facility where an organisation entitled Pavilions of Splendour could act as agents for properties restored by BPT members of the Association. These could be jointly marketed by Pavilions of Splendour as a centralised agent, working in collaboration with the appointed local agents. Pavilions of Splendour was founded four years ago as a specialist estate agent and heritage consultancy, concentrating on listed buildings and dilapidated properties, to fill the market demand for buildings which in most cases, because of condition or architectural significance, departed from the normal remit of estate agents. The properties which they handle have to be listed, or ruined (i.e. at present uninhabitable), or thatched, or exceptional in some way by virtue of history, architecture or location. Its standard terms are 2·5% as a sole agency and 3% as joint sole agents. It prefers to work in conjunction with a local agent, which can arrange viewings. If appointed sole or joint agent on a property which sells for under £80,000 it charges a flat fee of £2,000 or£1,200 as a joint agent. CONTEXT 50 Pavilions of Splendour has a mailing list of 829 applicants looking for listed or otherwise rare properties. It prides itself in being able to get exceptional national and international media coverage for the properties it represents. Full particulars and photographs in colour of all properties are posted on the World Wide Web Heritage pages of the Internet, which can be, and are, accessed world wide. While the arrangements apply initially to property on APT's Property List, they may well be able to help Conservation Officers with other problem buildings outside the usual format of Buildings-at-Risk Registers. For further details about Pavilions of Splendour contact: Gwyn Headley, Managing Director, Pavilions of Splendour Ltd, 22 Mount View Road, London N4 4HX Tel: 0181-348 1234, Fax: 0181-341 0748. APT sees this initiative as a useful link between potential purchases of historic properties and BPTs but Conservation Officers should also bear it in mind. HELPWANTEDON MALTINGSANT ITS MACHINERY In December 1993 the William Jones & Sons' 1907 Mattings, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, building was provisionally entered in the Heritage Register established under the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. The owners are currently appealing this decision in the Planning and Environment Court. In researching the case, it was established that the site with two earlier mattings constructed in 1897 and 1899, respectively, was acquired in 1904 by William Jones & Son (Maltsters) of Shrewsbury, and subsequently sold around 1922-23. In 1907 they constructed an additional floor maltings on the site, allegedly based on the design of an existing maltings in Shrewsbury. (now converted to offices). It has a single malting floor with storage for the barley and malt on the first floor and two kilns at one end. In the 1960s all buildings on the site except the 1907 maltings were demolished. The building was used intermittently for malting until the mid 1970s. It still contains all the original machinery supplied in 1907 by Robert Boby Co of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Experience to date has shown that the Planning and Environment Court will set very exacting standards in relation to the appeal, with the Department having to demonstrate clearly to the Courtthat the building is worthy of inclusion in the Heritage Register. Research to date indicates that the Toowoomba floor mattings is not only unique in Queensland (only one of five to survive) but, as an almost complete 1907 floor mattings with all original machinery, is a very rare, if not unique, survival in Australia. However, to assist the Court case, I would also like to try and place the building and its machinery in a United Kingdom context. Accordingly, I would be very grateful if readers of Context could supply details of any surviving floor maltings of this period, and in particular any information on surviving malting machinery from Robert Boby & Co. I would be more that pleased to supply further details of the Toowoomba Mattings to any person interested. Information should be sent to Ray Osborne, Manager, Historic Section, Cultural Heritage Branch, Queensland Department of Environment, PO Box 155, Brisbane Albert Street, Queensland 4002, Australia. THE LANDMARK ANDLUTYENS The Landmark Trust has recently signed a 99 year lease on Goddards, the Lutyens House at Abinger Common, near Dorking, Surrey. The house was given to the Lutyens Trust in 1991 by its former owners, Mr & Mrs M W Hall, as a memorial to their architect son Lee Hall. The Lutyens Trust accepted this generous gift without an endowment hoping to be able to make ends meet by opening the house to the public - particularly as so few of Lutyens's buildings in the Surrey style were easily accessible. After a gallant struggle in opening Goddards for three seasons on a limited basis, the Trust recognised that it needed outside help if it was to avoid the prospect of having to sell the building. By leasing the building to The Landmark Trust, the Lutyens Trust has maintained ownership, will still maintain an office there and at the same time the House will be open to the public one afternoon a week from 1997 onwards. (The Common Room and garden will be open on Wednesday afternoons between2.00and6.00pmfrom now to the end of October). Goddards is one ofLutyens's most important early houses. Built in the traditional Surrey style, it is constructed of stone, brick, roughcast and oak. Its courtyard garden was designed by Lutyens and planted by Gertrude Jekyll and remarkably the house has remained little 5
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=