RE VI VING CRA FT

SKILLS

To introduce this feature,

Philip yenning considers

what we mean by the

term craftsman and

discusses ways in which

craft training is being

improved

When William Morris died 100 years ago, the future of the building crafts was perhaps looking a little less gloomy. He had after all started a revival in their appreciation. Today it is often said that there is a shortage of craftsmen. Paradoxically the blame for this is sometimes placed at the door of Morris, or more precisely the conservation approach he promoted through the SPAB, which, it is said, stifles opportunities for creative craftsmen to practise their skill.

This complaint is principally heard from stone and wood carvers. In a limited sense this is true: we no longer recarve all the Mediaeval statues on the west front of a cathedral. But it goes to the heart of a much wider issue about the training of craftsmen and the failure of many courses to make a distinction between conservation and traditional craft skills. That in turn touches on even bigger questions: what is a conservation craftsman, what skills and qualities should he or she possess, and how do we identify such people?

There has been a welcome increase in the number of courses which claim to offer craft training in conservation, but which in practice concentrate on executing new work. Most good historic buildings projects involve a careful mixture of repair, conservation and renewal, requiring a broad range of skills.

Outside the rather specialised area

of what we might call ‘high’ craft, in some parts of the country there appears to be a shortage of normal building contractors capable of carrying out good, traditional repair work to ordinary historic buildings. This is where Conservation Officers so often face the biggest problems and where they already play an important, though unofficial, educational role.

Whether a man ribbon points or

flush points a wall is not normally a matter of skill: he can usually do either. It comes down to knowledge and understanding, perhaps his, perhaps the client’s, perhaps the architect’s or surveyor’s The advice given by the Conservation Officer is critical. In turn the Conservation Officer needs to know how to judge good practice - a tall order. We only hope that more local authorities will be able to send staff on the SPAB six day courses (which always include a number of craftsmen) and other practically based ones.

Much of it depends on attitude and approach. We know from experience that many tradesmen have the potential for good repair work. Plenty of skilled carpenters, given a chance to try it for the first time, quickly discover that repairing an historic widow, for example, is perfectly within their capabilities. We have probably all been to building sites where an initially sceptical contractor has been forced to try something new - lime plastering perhaps - and once he’s got the hang of it has acquired the zeal of the convert.

It is 18 years since the SPAB held its first Lime Day and we have been modestly pleased to see that an awareness of lime has slowly been moving out from the arcane inner circle of specialists to more general builders. This depends on a greater willingness of architects, surveyors and diocesan advisory committees, and indeed local

Robin George and Charles Smith, William Morris Craft Fellows, trying leadwork for the first time.

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