Malton stone conservation and repair day in demand
A ‘stone conservation and repair day’ focusing on the need for traditional buildings to perform as their builders intended-to breathe and be structurally flexible - proved popular with the North Yorkshire building industry, with 38 people attending a special training day held in Malton.
Run by a partnership of the Fitzwilliam Estates, Derwent Training Association, CTC Plastering School and Craven College and funded by The Learning & Skills Council, the day aimed at contractors and tradesmen, property owners and their advisors. It offered technical information, advice, practical hands on experience and an illustrative tour of Malton.
Participants came from all over North Yorkshire and included local and national regional builders, local authority employees, representatives from neighbouring estates, architects, surveyors and private individuals.
Roddy Bushell, estate manager at the Fitzwilliam Estates says; “The overwhelming demand for the course highlights the genuine interest within the building industry about managing and repairing the region’s historic buildings.
“This course helped owners and contractors gain valuable knowledge of how best to work with stone within historic buildings. The way in which repairs are carried out is also crucial to preserving the aesthetic appearance of historic buildings.
“The course brought home to the participants that to retain the maximum character and authenticity, old buildings should be repaired only when structurally necessary and only with compatible materials of appropriate geology and performance; or at least in a way that changes their historic character the least and involves the minimum loss of authenticity and historic fabric.”
Valerie Richards, business manager, Derwent Training Association adds; “It was a very enjoyable and informative day. It was nice to see traditional skills being demonstrated by expert craftsmen. We were delighted with the high number of attendees and felt that the number was just about right to work with. We look forward to organising future events and other master classes in Heritage Skills.”
Nigel Copsey, expert craftsman providing training on the course, concluded; “Good conservation is not only about practical skills - it is about sensitivity to the needs and the authenticity of the old and historic. It is about a frame of mind that respects the existing fabric and those that constructed or altered it. It is about the avoidance of unnecessary work; the avoidance of restoration, since no modern copy or speculative replacement - however well we do it - can carry the same cultural meaning as the original work.
“Old buildings are often the only document that survives of our common past; of the lives lived within them - it takes only moments of thoughtlessness on the part of those that repair them for this document to be lost. Old buildings must first be understood in all their evolution and their fabric respected and preserved for the future with the minimum of intervention and loss of original fabric. A building should be allowed to look its age - in this lies its essential charm. This, I hope, was the message of the day.”