New crafts heritage training centre reaches anniversary

On Friday 9th September 2011 Heritage Crafts Alliance, the heritage skills training centre at Thorp Perrow, North Yorkshire was formally opened by the Rt Hon William Hague MP.

The Rt Hon William Hague MP tries stone carving under the watchful eye of Heritage Craft Alliance MD Glenn Young

They are now offering a wide range of traditional craft skills and conservation programmes for all levels of learner, including Level 2 Award in Heritage Construction and several weekend crafts courses covering subjects such as stone masonry and leaded glass work.

Enquiries are invited from any groups or individuals who may be interested in taking a course and there are a range of packages available.

Here are some of the courses that are helping maintain and improve the much needed skills in the heritage sector:

Repairing and Maintaining Leaded Glass Work

This course will provide you with the basic skills and knowledge so that you can repair and care for leaded glass work. The course is suitable for beginners who wish to get hands on with leaded glass and for intermediate craftspeople, who wish to learn more about tools, techniques and care of historic and contemporary glass work.


Understanding and Building with Lime

This course will teach you how to use lime in buildings. You will learn how to identify the type of mix required, you will use various components to prepare specific mixes. You will learn how to grout and point walls using traditional methods and materials and how to build solid stone walls and solid brick walls using lime mortars.


Green Timber Framing

This course is for those who wish to get to grips with some bigger timbers. We use English softwood or hardwoods to manufacture a full sized porch frame. You will build a frame using medieval joints dating back to the 12th Century, which are still as useful and stable today as they were back then. You will learn the simple geometry related to a pitched roof structure and actually cut and assemble a frame using traditional joints all round.

Level 2 Award in Heritage Construction

This award offers the opportunity to learn about our built heritage.
It covers architectural styles, types of construction, materials and crafts utilised in our historic buildings. We also look at legislation supporting the preservation and conservation of our built heritage.

The course will give you an understanding of how to look after historic buildings.

the programme contains a series of lectures with interactive work, along with some out of centre research both supported and self-managed.

A total of 80 hours will be required to fulfil the programme, most of which will be delivered in our centre at Thorp Perrow.

The award is a nationally recognised qualification at level 2 which will offer credits under QCF to support further progression.

Stone Masonry

In this course you will learn how to cut and face up and cut moulding’s in stone using hand tools, identify stone and gauge its quality and faults.

You will have the opportunity to choose a stone dressing or carving project over the weekend.


Maintaining Older and Historic Houses

This course is for people who want to understand their older houses. You will be able to recognise structural features and materials and create maintenance and repair interventions which will be suitable for the structure



WATCH OUT FOR OUR HERITAGE SKILLS FESTIVAL LATER IN THE YEAR
IF YOU WISH TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THESE OR OTHER HERITAGE RELATED SKILLS GO TO http://www.heritagecraftalliance.co.uk/