[Music]
21st century solutions to heritage at
risk so probably before I start talking
about the solutions we need to start
talking about what the problem is the
number of nationally significant
historic buildings at risk is growing in
England at the moment and I just wanted
to share with you first of all some
statistics from historic England they
published every year a heritage at risk
list of those buildings that are at risk
so they are derelict often vacant in
need of a new use and yet it’s the type
of heritage that we’ve decided is
nationally significant and is worthy of
saving so at the moment we grade our
listed buildings grade 1 2 star and
grade twos and historic England collects
information on those that are the most
significant so the grade ones and the
two stars and of those are shocking
45.7% are currently at risk and the
other issue
apart from the condition of these
buildings and the need for the new use
is that the cost of repairing these
buildings is growing every year and as
resources get ever more scarce and
funding competition for funding gets
even higher the total cost of repair
bringing these buildings back into an
economically viable use is growing so in
2015 what they call the conservation
deficit was four hundred and seventy
five point four million and the
conservation deficit is the current
value of the property plus what it will
cost to bring it back into a good state
of repair and then – what it’s going to
be worth at the end of it and most in
most cases the cost of bringing it back
into a good state of repair far
outweighs what it’s going to be worth at
the end and this is why there’s a huge
conservation deficit for us to deal with
as you can see in 2016 that has grown to
613 million and new statistics have just
been released this week about what’s
happening in 2017 and really this is
just the tip of the iceberg because in
fact grade 2 listed buildings account
for over 90% of our listed building
stock in the country and he won’t be
surprised to know that the information
that we’ve got about the condition of
those buildings is incredibly sketchy
across the country apart from in
Lincolnshire because in Lincolnshire you
have a Heritage Trust who galvanized the
expertise and enthusiasm of over 400
volunteers over the last few years to go
out and have a look at 6807 listed and
unlisted historic buildings across the
county and this is what they found they
found that there are 90 buildings at
high risk and a further 347 our medium
risk so together that accounts for quite
a large amount of our listed building
stock so how are we going to cope with
those sorts of figures how are we going
to start to address those issues with
the sort of lack of resources that we’re
trying to deal with at the moment and
why should we when there’s a question
really here about if we’re not looking
after our listed buildings is there
really the need and demand there and why
did we make an effort to look after them
it’s my view that architectural heritage
is so important to our quality of life
it makes up the character of our towns
and villages and it really speaks about
our sense of place and our sense of
identity and those materials and the
craftsmanship that have gone into making
those buildings it’s just a real
expression of the place
and it’s a it’s a work of art and it’s
one that we live with day-in day-out and
if we’re not careful we will begin to
take for granted
the fact that architectural heritage is
important and we need to balance
development and moving forward with
retaining the character of our Historic
Places is not a new concept and it
started really when the Industrial
Revolution was gaining pace in the late
19th century in 1877 William Morris
established the society for the
protection of ancient buildings and that
was quickly followed in 1896 by the
establishment of the National Trust we
know that this is a cause that people
still support because the National Trust
has just reached five million members we
know that there’s huge proportions of
the population that care about this we
went on through the 20th century
establishing specialist groups looking
at particular types of buildings like
the Georgian group and the Victorian
society and it was in 1947 that we
decided to give these buildings
legislative protection in the 1970s
something really interesting started to
happen we started to realize that the
built the types of buildings that the
National Trust’s were caring for our
country houses and our churches and our
larger industrial buildings they weren’t
the only important buildings in fact
people cared about the buildings that
were special to them their buildings
that held a sort of sense of memory and
sense of community in their own places
and so a new movement was formed called
the building preservation trust movement
and in the 1970s charities were
established across the country who
started to look at buildings in their
own places and my charity the Heritage
Trust of Lincolnshire was established in
1988 and registered as a charity in 91
and we’ve been working ever since to
save historic buildings in around
Lincolnshire
the old model was to create a trust that
purchased the historic building took out
a loan from the architectural heritage
fund restored the building and sold it
on for a profit as you can imagine the
conservation deficit means that those
days are long gone and we now have to
attract a quite a significant amount of
grant funding in order to take any
project forward as we move through the
21st century and the Heritage Lottery
Fund was established which was
established particularly to help these
communities who wanted to celebrate
their own heritage in their own areas
and interesting things started to happen
we start to move away from the solutions
that were provided by the National Trust
and the churches Conservation Trust
their work remains very important
because they’re looking after a huge
body of assets but those people who were
really interested in buildings in their
own areas started to take matters into
their own hands and we now have quite a
large community of smaller local based
trusts who are working very hard in
their own areas to save and building
buildings that are important to them and
2016 they’re launched a heritage trust
network which is all about bringing
these people together sharing expertise
sharing knowledge and making sure we can
support each other on this journey so I
just wanted to give you a few examples
of the type of work that’s been going on
this is Cromford Mills in Derbyshire and
in 1972 a trust called the Arkwright
Society was established to save these
buildings at the time they were in a
completely derelict State and yet they
were the first in textile industrial
mills built in the country by Sir
Richard Arkwright in the late 18th
century hugely significant historic
industrial landscape
it was it had been in use until the
1990s and there was contamination on the
site they’ve been using it to dye
textiles and the contamination on the
flight was huge
so private developers had moved away
from this there was no profit in
converting or saving these buildings so
the trust stepped in and consequentially
they have repaired each and every
building on that site bringing millions
of pounds of investment into this small
area of Derbyshire through just hard
work and dedication in 2001 it was
designated a World Heritage Site and
they’ve recently won a Europa Nostra
Award for their work on building 17 it
just shows you the power of the
community when we get together and want
to achieve something another building
that has recently been purchased by a
trust the Wentworth wood house
Preservation Trust
this is Wentworth house in West
Yorkshire it has the longest Georgian
facade understand in Europe it’s a
colossal building and they’ve started
off with repairs to the roof now this
building and all of its ancillary
buildings put together there are four
acres of roof to repair so this first
phase of work is costing 7 million
pounds they’ve been assisted by the
government in doing that but in the
future they’re on their own they’re
having to raise a huge amount of money
to repair this really internationally
significant building and they’re doing
it by galvanizing the expertise and the
skills that are in the local community
and they’re bringing interest and
excitement to what’s going to be the
future for this but really significant
historic building
so on a smaller scale heritage
Lincolnshire is doing this work in this
county and we’ve been working to save
the types of historic buildings that we
see in our everyday lives this is 1770
13 Bridge Street in Horn Castle that
were saved in 2006 it was in a state of
collapse as you can see there and the
trust stepped in when the council had
compulsory purchased the building and
raised million pounds for repair and
brought it back into use it’s now
thriving as the the Joseph Banks Center
and it’s a place where people go to to
learn to gain more skills to have a new
experience it’s really made a positive
impact on the center of the town which
is a conservation area – and again in
Boston this is a hundred and sixteen
high street this grade two-star listed
building had been a blight on the area
for about 25 years again a private
developer had tried to bring a solution
for the building but it failed because
of the conservation deficit and the
local community were despairing they
were saying surely something should be
done about this building
the Gothic family established the first
private bank in Lincolnshire in this
building in 1751
it’s absolutely entwined in Boston’s
rich George and past and yet it was in
that state so heritage Lincolnshire
stepped in and worked with the local
community and brought the building back
into youth following a campaign that
raised 2.4 million pounds again it’s
been sold on to a local charity called
the Lincolnshire community foundation
and it’s now the offices of Age Concern
and there are new start businesses in in
the rear yard and it’s really gives them
confidence to people along this
forgotten high streets of Boston
that if you do invest in the place it’s
going to make a difference and this is
our new project this is the one we’re
working on at the moment this is the old
King’s Head
it’s just down the road from Boston and
Curtin it’s a 16th century in so it was
really it’s coaching in that’s been in
community use for about 400 years people
talk about collective memory it’s all
embodied there you have an open day
people bring stories about meeting their
friends and family they’re meeting their
spouses going and having a drink there’s
lots of stories I won’t tell you about
that happened when turning that building
but it’s a fantastic space it was closed
as a pub in the 1970s and went into
private use and just deteriorated to
this sort of state again we need to
raise about 2.8 million for this project
and we’re well on the way but we’re
working again with the local community
and they are determined alongside us
that we’re going to make sure this
building laughs into the future
so this is a cat this is a campaigning
call really this is all about supporting
communities that want to make a
difference in their area I’m working
with lots and lots of people that have
the kind of eco guy that Justine was
talking about earlier there are
determined to make a difference they’re
determined to do what they love and
they’re passionate about it and there’s
a there’s a network that you can join if
you’re interested you can become a
member you can make a donation or you
can volunteer but whatever you do let
this be the generation where we don’t
forget about these vernacular buildings
that we don’t focus only on our country
houses and we make sure that for the
future generations these wonderful
assets are still there
[Applause]
21st century solutions to heritage at
risk so probably before I start talking
about the solutions we need to start
talking about what the problem is the
number of nationally significant
historic buildings at risk is growing in
England at the moment and I just wanted
to share with you first of all some
statistics from historic England they
published every year a heritage at risk
list of those buildings that are at risk
so they are derelict often vacant in
need of a new use and yet it’s the type
of heritage that we’ve decided is
nationally significant and is worthy of
saving so at the moment we grade our
listed buildings grade 1 2 star and
grade twos and historic England collects
information on those that are the most
significant so the grade ones and the
two stars and of those are shocking
45.7% are currently at risk and the
other issue
apart from the condition of these
buildings and the need for the new use
is that the cost of repairing these
buildings is growing every year and as
resources get ever more scarce and
funding competition for funding gets
even higher the total cost of repair
bringing these buildings back into an
economically viable use is growing so in
2015 what they call the conservation
deficit was four hundred and seventy
five point four million and the
conservation deficit is the current
value of the property plus what it will
cost to bring it back into a good state
of repair and then – what it’s going to
be worth at the end of it and most in
most cases the cost of bringing it back
into a good state of repair far
outweighs what it’s going to be worth at
the end and this is why there’s a huge
conservation deficit for us to deal with
as you can see in 2016 that has grown to
613 million and new statistics have just
been released this week about what’s
happening in 2017 and really this is
just the tip of the iceberg because in
fact grade 2 listed buildings account
for over 90% of our listed building
stock in the country and he won’t be
surprised to know that the information
that we’ve got about the condition of
those buildings is incredibly sketchy
across the country apart from in
Lincolnshire because in Lincolnshire you
have a Heritage Trust who galvanized the
expertise and enthusiasm of over 400
volunteers over the last few years to go
out and have a look at 6807 listed and
unlisted historic buildings across the
county and this is what they found they
found that there are 90 buildings at
high risk and a further 347 our medium
risk so together that accounts for quite
a large amount of our listed building
stock so how are we going to cope with
those sorts of figures how are we going
to start to address those issues with
the sort of lack of resources that we’re
trying to deal with at the moment and
why should we when there’s a question
really here about if we’re not looking
after our listed buildings is there
really the need and demand there and why
did we make an effort to look after them
it’s my view that architectural heritage
is so important to our quality of life
it makes up the character of our towns
and villages and it really speaks about
our sense of place and our sense of
identity and those materials and the
craftsmanship that have gone into making
those buildings it’s just a real
expression of the place
and it’s a it’s a work of art and it’s
one that we live with day-in day-out and
if we’re not careful we will begin to
take for granted
the fact that architectural heritage is
important and we need to balance
development and moving forward with
retaining the character of our Historic
Places is not a new concept and it
started really when the Industrial
Revolution was gaining pace in the late
19th century in 1877 William Morris
established the society for the
protection of ancient buildings and that
was quickly followed in 1896 by the
establishment of the National Trust we
know that this is a cause that people
still support because the National Trust
has just reached five million members we
know that there’s huge proportions of
the population that care about this we
went on through the 20th century
establishing specialist groups looking
at particular types of buildings like
the Georgian group and the Victorian
society and it was in 1947 that we
decided to give these buildings
legislative protection in the 1970s
something really interesting started to
happen we started to realize that the
built the types of buildings that the
National Trust’s were caring for our
country houses and our churches and our
larger industrial buildings they weren’t
the only important buildings in fact
people cared about the buildings that
were special to them their buildings
that held a sort of sense of memory and
sense of community in their own places
and so a new movement was formed called
the building preservation trust movement
and in the 1970s charities were
established across the country who
started to look at buildings in their
own places and my charity the Heritage
Trust of Lincolnshire was established in
1988 and registered as a charity in 91
and we’ve been working ever since to
save historic buildings in around
Lincolnshire
the old model was to create a trust that
purchased the historic building took out
a loan from the architectural heritage
fund restored the building and sold it
on for a profit as you can imagine the
conservation deficit means that those
days are long gone and we now have to
attract a quite a significant amount of
grant funding in order to take any
project forward as we move through the
21st century and the Heritage Lottery
Fund was established which was
established particularly to help these
communities who wanted to celebrate
their own heritage in their own areas
and interesting things started to happen
we start to move away from the solutions
that were provided by the National Trust
and the churches Conservation Trust
their work remains very important
because they’re looking after a huge
body of assets but those people who were
really interested in buildings in their
own areas started to take matters into
their own hands and we now have quite a
large community of smaller local based
trusts who are working very hard in
their own areas to save and building
buildings that are important to them and
2016 they’re launched a heritage trust
network which is all about bringing
these people together sharing expertise
sharing knowledge and making sure we can
support each other on this journey so I
just wanted to give you a few examples
of the type of work that’s been going on
this is Cromford Mills in Derbyshire and
in 1972 a trust called the Arkwright
Society was established to save these
buildings at the time they were in a
completely derelict State and yet they
were the first in textile industrial
mills built in the country by Sir
Richard Arkwright in the late 18th
century hugely significant historic
industrial landscape
it was it had been in use until the
1990s and there was contamination on the
site they’ve been using it to dye
textiles and the contamination on the
flight was huge
so private developers had moved away
from this there was no profit in
converting or saving these buildings so
the trust stepped in and consequentially
they have repaired each and every
building on that site bringing millions
of pounds of investment into this small
area of Derbyshire through just hard
work and dedication in 2001 it was
designated a World Heritage Site and
they’ve recently won a Europa Nostra
Award for their work on building 17 it
just shows you the power of the
community when we get together and want
to achieve something another building
that has recently been purchased by a
trust the Wentworth wood house
Preservation Trust
this is Wentworth house in West
Yorkshire it has the longest Georgian
facade understand in Europe it’s a
colossal building and they’ve started
off with repairs to the roof now this
building and all of its ancillary
buildings put together there are four
acres of roof to repair so this first
phase of work is costing 7 million
pounds they’ve been assisted by the
government in doing that but in the
future they’re on their own they’re
having to raise a huge amount of money
to repair this really internationally
significant building and they’re doing
it by galvanizing the expertise and the
skills that are in the local community
and they’re bringing interest and
excitement to what’s going to be the
future for this but really significant
historic building
so on a smaller scale heritage
Lincolnshire is doing this work in this
county and we’ve been working to save
the types of historic buildings that we
see in our everyday lives this is 1770
13 Bridge Street in Horn Castle that
were saved in 2006 it was in a state of
collapse as you can see there and the
trust stepped in when the council had
compulsory purchased the building and
raised million pounds for repair and
brought it back into use it’s now
thriving as the the Joseph Banks Center
and it’s a place where people go to to
learn to gain more skills to have a new
experience it’s really made a positive
impact on the center of the town which
is a conservation area – and again in
Boston this is a hundred and sixteen
high street this grade two-star listed
building had been a blight on the area
for about 25 years again a private
developer had tried to bring a solution
for the building but it failed because
of the conservation deficit and the
local community were despairing they
were saying surely something should be
done about this building
the Gothic family established the first
private bank in Lincolnshire in this
building in 1751
it’s absolutely entwined in Boston’s
rich George and past and yet it was in
that state so heritage Lincolnshire
stepped in and worked with the local
community and brought the building back
into youth following a campaign that
raised 2.4 million pounds again it’s
been sold on to a local charity called
the Lincolnshire community foundation
and it’s now the offices of Age Concern
and there are new start businesses in in
the rear yard and it’s really gives them
confidence to people along this
forgotten high streets of Boston
that if you do invest in the place it’s
going to make a difference and this is
our new project this is the one we’re
working on at the moment this is the old
King’s Head
it’s just down the road from Boston and
Curtin it’s a 16th century in so it was
really it’s coaching in that’s been in
community use for about 400 years people
talk about collective memory it’s all
embodied there you have an open day
people bring stories about meeting their
friends and family they’re meeting their
spouses going and having a drink there’s
lots of stories I won’t tell you about
that happened when turning that building
but it’s a fantastic space it was closed
as a pub in the 1970s and went into
private use and just deteriorated to
this sort of state again we need to
raise about 2.8 million for this project
and we’re well on the way but we’re
working again with the local community
and they are determined alongside us
that we’re going to make sure this
building laughs into the future
so this is a cat this is a campaigning
call really this is all about supporting
communities that want to make a
difference in their area I’m working
with lots and lots of people that have
the kind of eco guy that Justine was
talking about earlier there are
determined to make a difference they’re
determined to do what they love and
they’re passionate about it and there’s
a there’s a network that you can join if
you’re interested you can become a
member you can make a donation or you
can volunteer but whatever you do let
this be the generation where we don’t
forget about these vernacular buildings
that we don’t focus only on our country
houses and we make sure that for the
future generations these wonderful
assets are still there
[Applause]
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