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Heritage Roofing
Heritage roofing - maintaining our iconic buildings
The UK is home to some of the most iconic buildings in the world, from stunning churches and cathedrals to historic stately homes. Each and every one of these remarkable feats of architecture requires regular maintenance to ensure they remain in the very best condition, allowing them to be enjoyed for generations.
Cathedral Care
Restoration and upkeep of cathedrals
There are some 42 Anglican cathedrals in the UK, not to mention 20 or so Catholic cathedrals. Cathedrals form the most important collection of historic buildings in England. The largest and most ancient are internationally famous, the smallest are usually among the most significant buildings in their region and even the most recent are architectural masterpieces.
Master Craftsmen
Championing our heritage with modern craftsmanship
Twenty years ago, English Heritage (now Historic England) published its first-ever Register of Buildings at Risk across England, which featured nearly 2,000 buildings and monuments that were ‘neglected, broken and unloved’. Recently Historic England was delighted to announce that over two-thirds of those buildings were now safe, in both urban and rural areas right across the country.
Traditional Lime
Lime: it’s better for buildings – and for the environment
It is now fairly well known that cement is not good for old buildings and that lime mortar should be used. But why? What are the advantages and what are the disadvantages? In order to begin to answer those questions it is necessary to understand the nature of traditional building, the process by which buildings used to be built, and how it differs from modern construction, the process by which we build today.
Audio Visual
Audio visual equipment in church buildings
This guidance is issued by the Church Buildings Council under section 55(1)(d) of the Dioceses, Mission and Pastoral Measure 2007. As it is statutory guidance, it must be considered with great care. The standards of good practice set out in the guidance should not be departed from unless the departure is justified by reasons that are spelled out clearly, logically and convincingly.
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CRE Events
After the Midlands, onward to Milton Keynes
"CRE Midlands reminded me of the giddy days when it first began – the venue was packed with exhibitors and visitors and there was a busy atmosphere. The whole thing looked great."
Insurance
You need to ensure that reasonable precautions are in place at your church to keep it safe for those who use it. To do this, you need to think about what might cause harm to people.
You will then need to decide if the precautions already in place are adequate. If they are not, you may need to identify further action to prevent any danger. When done formally, this is known as a risk assessment.
Church Maintenance
Church maintenance and repair: Calendar of Care
Just as prevention is always better than cure, maintenance is preferable to major repairs. But, such repairs may not always be avoidable. Church Care offers a monthly guide in our coming issues Starting in Spring
We can help you understand the common problems and areas that need your special attention, and give you tips for regular maintenance schemes.
Pest Control
Michael Palin warns of pest threat to churches
Michael Palin is supporting the future of the UK’s historic churches and chapels with a voiceover for a new animated film. The 80 second animation, produced for the National Churches Trust, highlights why churches are some of the nation’s best loved buildings.
Town Halls
The history of the great Victorian Town Halls of Northern England
From industrial squalor to civic pride, the story behind some of the most impressive buildings of the North involve a unique mix of economics, grand designs and noble sentiments within communities.
Lead Roofing
Lead is one of the oldest materials in the roofing industry and is still commonly used throughout the world today.
Lead roofing is a traditional roofing method which has been used in the industry for hundreds of years, and is therefore proven to be extremely reliable. Lead roofing, and sand-cast lead, in particular is ideal for old buildings such as churches or historical renovations, whereas milled lead roofing is a mass-produced alternative, used for precision and accuracy in homes and commercial buildings alike.
Lightning Protection
When lightning strikes are you protected against this act of God?
The issue of lightning protection in churches is one that has exercised this publication for many years. In this four-part series of spotlights on the issue we will be revisiting various aspects of the subject, beginning with an overview of current thinking.
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Natural Stone Award for Craftsmanship current holder Timothy Lees demonstrates standards achieved by MCA Members
Principal Stone Contractor/Craftsman: Timothy Lees
The project
New Chimney Pieces, Hanover Lodge, London
Each of the five chimney pieces has been made from carefully selected statuary marble, sawn to make sure only the best quality material was visible on the finished piece.
Wood Carving Classes with Gerald Adams of the Master Carvers Association
Your Tutor. Gerald Adams
After obtaining a fine art degree at Exeter, Gerald worked for a large Norfolk Furniture maker making fine reproductions, before studying carving at the London College of Furniture and setting up on his own.
Newcastles Medieval 'Black Gate' brought back to life
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has today awarded a confirmed grant¹ of £1.4m to The Heart of the City Partnership for an exciting restoration project. Old Newcastle: ‘Where the Story Begins’.
HLF’s investment will completely revitalise the City’s 13th century, Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade I listed ‘Black Gate’, bringing this currently vacant building back into public use as a fully accessible heritage, education and community resource.
Laing O’Rourke seals £95m Manchester library revamp job
Contractor will overhaul the city’s central library and town hall
Laing O’Rourke has signed a £95m contract with Manchester city council to overhaul the city’s grade-II listed Central Library and town hall.
The contractor will refurbish the two 1930s landmarks and connect the buildings for the first time.
Other works include the installation of a glass and steel feature stair and lift in the Central Library and the creation of a new public ground floor exhibition and entertainment space.
Larry Lamb makes surprise announcement of Heritage Lottery Fund grant to former Brixham sailing trawler
The Trinity Sailing Foundation is today celebrating following the award of £170,400 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to support the restoration of the former Brixham sailing trawler, Leader.
The surprise announcement, made by EastEnders actor Larry Lamb, will be shown as part of The National Lottery: Secret Fortune on Saturday evening on BBC 1.
Larry Lamb visited Brixham as part of a series of films appearing on the Lottery draw show over the coming weeks. The films feature the great variety of good causes that Lottery players are helping to support by raising over £30million a week for good causes.
Breaking the code at Bletchley Park
World War II codebreaking centre set to benefit from latest Heritage Lottery Fund support.
Today, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has announced confirmed funding [1] of over £6m for three heritage projects. These involve:
Lifting the lid on Bletchley Park’s fascinating secret wartime history;
Conserving one of the UK’s most endangered insects - the bumblebee;
Restoring Newcastle’s ‘Black Gate’, a notable medieval landmark.
Carole Souter, Chief Executive of HLF, said: “These projects demonstrate the huge reach of our work, from protecting the endangered bumblebee to restoring wonderful historic buildings. We were extremely impressed with the quality of the proposals we looked at for this round of funding and high competition meant difficult decisions on the day. We hope that this sizeable investment of lottery money will give many more people the chance to get involved with their local heritage, wherever their interests lie.”
Details unveiled for £100million scheme to boost private giving to culture
Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) today announced further details of the £100million Catalyst scheme to boost private giving to the cultural sector.
Full guidance for applicants has now been published with the first part of the scheme now open for heritage applications.
English Heritage Publishes New Guidance on Theft of Metal from Churches
English Heritage has today (26 September 2011) issued new guidance on the theft of metal from church buildings in view of the intensification of the problem in some parts of England. The guidance offers greater clarity on when alternative materials might be appropriate and which ones are likely to be considered following theft of roofing materials.
"I want the one with the Owl on it"
Owlett-architectural Inspires Merchant Ambassador
The UK’s newest distributor of architectural ironmongery, Owlett-Architectural, has proved to be so popular with merchants across the UK that one satisfied customer has covered his workplace with images of the brand’s iconic owl.
Lovell Purbeck restores Floor at St. John's Church, Hyde Park
Produced in the company’s new tile factory
Lovell Purbeck, a specialist supplier of Purbeck natural stone and British limestones, has recently supplied 650m2 of replacement internal flooring for the significant renovation project at St John’s Church, Hyde Park. This project marks the first, completed scheme through the company’s new state-of-the-art tile factory at the stoneworks just outside Swanage, Dorset.
The History of Church Stained Glass Windows
Church Stained Glass Windows were once known as the "Poor Mans Bible".
Beautiful Stained Glass Windows illuminate our churches throughout the world, being one of the main focal points within these places of worship. Their beautiful colours and pictures bring the bible to life through stories of saints and martyrs from the christian world.
What is the history of Church Stained Glass Windows?
For about 900 years, churches and cathedrals have been displaying these fantastic master pieces. Once known as the "poor mans bible" due to the fact that bibles were too expensive. With paper being expensive the church decided that glass seemed the most cost effective and durable way to spread the word of God. Stained glass windows in churches today are carefully maintained and restored due to their integral part of the churches ambiance. Beautiful examples are the Sainte Chappelle, Canterbury Chapel and the Vatican in Rome.
Church Stained Glass Windows are a work of art and today specialist who specialise in bespoke design of Stained Glass Windows for churches and residential homes can only be described as 'artistic craftsman'. Many homes are now following the churches example and using stained glass windows within their home to tell stories of their family etc. A good example is a local Bolton family who commissioned a Clitheroe company to create a stained glass window that told the story of their life, family and roots.
Stained Glass Windows will hopefully continue to be restored in churches and grow as a design trend in interior design.
Wrightstyle supplies to iconic new heart of historic city
The centre of Bristol is being reinvented with the largest mixed use development to have been built in the city for twenty years, bringing back into productive life a former brewery site that has lain derelict for ten years.
Centrepiece of the Finzels Reach development is Bridgewater House, the largest speculative office development on site outside London.
Globe Theatre Extension Aided by Laser Scanned 3D Models
Complex laser scanned computer models, created using software from Pointools, are helping architects design the most complete recreation of an English renaissance indoor theatre ever attempted. The indoor Jacobean theatre, the shell of which already exists on the Shakespeare’s Globe site in London, will be restored to provide a brand new theatre space that will seat around 320 people, with two tiers of galleried seating and an authentic pit seating area.
Lead And Other Metal Theft
We at Ecclesiastical and Heritage World thought you might like to join us and others in an effort to do something about this growing problem.
Historically the scrap metal trade has been a cash in hand industry which creates difficulties as there is no audit trail, making identification of individuals who may be trading stolen metal or who may be committing tax or benefits fraud, a difficult proposition.
An amendment to the Scrap Metal Merchants Act 1964 to prohibit cash transactions would make payment by cheque or directly into a bank account mandatory and would be a significant component in reducing metal theft
Sign the petition and forward to anyone else you think might be interested please.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/406
Stairrods (UK) completes refurbishment project for Scottish Portrait Gallery
The Scottish Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh is due to re-open in November 2011 following a £2 million refurbishment project, which includes the renovation by Stairrods (UK) of all 180 original, solid brass stair rods.
The period rods had been damaged over the years by heavy foot traffic, the application of various cleaning materials, plus natural ageing, which had left the stair rods scratched, significantly marked and looking worn.
Cumbria has restored and conserved their historic Leaded Windows in their famous Dallam Tower.
Lightworks Stained Glass windows have successfully restored the historic Leaded Windows at Dallam Tower in Cumbria meaning that the tower no longer suffers from draft problems and water damage.
Dallam Tower has seen it's historic windows suffer over the years creating draft problems and water ingress, their decision to commission Lightworks Stained Glass to fully restore them has made a real difference to the tower in Cumbria.
The Stonehenge Enigma – An inconvenient truth
Robert Langdon’s new book, sheds new light on the evidence found in Stonehenge’s Visitors Car Park, which has subsequently been buried for over 40 years, that proves Stonehenge is really 5000 years older than we believe
The Stonehenge Enigma, has unearthed evidence that has been kept from public scrutiny for over 40 years. Current theories on the discovery of the four post holes in a line found during excavation work on the visitors car park in 1966 are simple and dismissive – they are ‘totem poles’ claim English Heritage in their book ‘Stonehenge in its landscape’ by Cleal et al. 1995.
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