Conservation Skills

The Trust and Craftsmanship

To view the Trust as merely curatorial is to underestimate its role considerably. Each repair programme it undertakes offers the opportunity to continue the traditions of good craftsmanship; change and adaptation provide the chance to make a design contribution for the church’s future. Fortunately for building crafts, the Trust’s policy and practice is protecting the legacy of past craftspeople and perpetuating craft skills. The Trust’s buildings offer many different things to visitors: a place of quiet spirituality, a concert venue; a time capsule of changing design and community history. Craftsmanship is embodied in the fabric of ancient churches. Craftspeople often left little trace in historic documents, but their handiwork is alive and well in these old buildings. Their religious conviction is displayed in a church wall painting or a stained-glass window. Their humour may emerge from a grotesque gargoyle.

The memory of the craftsman’s hand remains in the pleasing surface undulations of an old lime render or the adze marks on a timber. This may be the only legacy of the person responsible, but it continues to enliven the character of a church for the visitor and provides a link with the parish’s past. Craft skills have been under threat in recent times. In 2005, a report issued by the National Heritage Training Group found that the construction industry would need to recruit over 6,500 people in the next 12 months just to meet immediate demand within the historic building sector. In the longer term it anticipated that some crafts, such as flint knapping and drystone walling, could die out altogether if not encouraged. While demand exists and more effective recruitment and training is needed, it is vital for there to be publicly supported work that demands high conservation standards. On these jobs, skills and principles are learned that can then be applied in future work. Conservation craftsmanship can be extremely fulfi lling work. This contrasts with modern construction, which is frequently soulless and mechanical. Many craftspeople who have experienced conservation work are persuaded to stay within the sector, even with the possibility of reduced pay.

Stonemason Andrew Ziminski is a partner in Minerva Conservation. He has worked on about fifteen Trust churches in the south-west, ranging from basic maintenance to structural repair. Andrew’s principled approach to building conservation (arising partly from his time as a William Morris Craft Fellow of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings), has given him a discerning view of projects and clients. He readily volunteers that he enjoys Trust projects the most, because they allow his conservation skills to be put to full use. ‘We never tire of working for the Trust.’ he says. ‘Each church has its unique vernacular style, character and intriguing use of local materials.’ Recent projects have included All Saints, Langport in Somerset. The church is noted for its many wall monuments elaborately carved in blue lias stone, and conserving them was an intricate and specialised job.

It involved stabilizing the stone with cramps and using lime to consolidate surfaces that were cracked or friable. The church also has a large and intricately carved reredos, which required micro-pinning to reattach broken elements and some gentle cleaning. At St John the Baptist, Stamford in Lincolnshire, a recent repair programme, carried out E. Bowman & Sons under the direction of surveyor Alan Gardner of Tim Ratcliffe Associates, continued a long-term relationship between craftsmen and church. Bowman’s are a firm, now relatively uncommon, that still trains apprentices and Bowman craftspeople have helped care for St John’s for many years, even contributing in the past to the cost of a pulpit. Their past maintenance work has helped lessen the extent of repair recently needed. In 2004 they won a competitive tender for a contract at the church that called on a variety of craft skills, including leadworking, and the pride in their work is reflected in the fact that they returned to St John’s to take part in a rededication service at the end of the project.

Alan Gardner comments: ‘It was good to work collaboratively with their craftsmen on repair details at Stamford and also at St Michael and All Angels, Edmondthorpe, Leicesteshire.’ At the early 14th-century church of All Saints, Holdenby in Northamptonshire, conservators’ skills have been needed to protect some important historic joinery. The region’s conservation manager, Roger Simmons, explains: ‘Around 1700 what had been part of the 16th-century hall screen in Holdenby House was transferred to the church and installed in the chancel arch. The church suffers from high humidity and this has recently affected the screen, causing extensive white blooming to the wax finish.’ Conservators Plowden & Smith carried out initial repairs, consolidating loose and detached joinery elements with traditional animal glue, and removing the bloomed wax areas with cloths dampened with white spirit. Through this work the screen should survive to be enjoyed by many future generations. Within its modest budget, the Trust cannot hope to lead the much-needed revival of traditional craft skills in England, but in caring for important historic churches it makes a significant contribution to the support and perpetuation of traditional building crafts.

Matthew Slocombe SPAB