NEWSLETTER

Issue 36 June 2009

WEST MIDLANDS BRANCH

DIARY DATES

NEXT BRANCH MEETING

Monday 22 nd June at Hill Close Gardens Visitor

Centre, Bread and Meat Close, Warwick CV34 6HF.

From 10.00am. See meeting Agenda for further

details.

BRANCH MEETINGS 2009

Branch meetings take September and November

2009 and March 2010. Actual dates will be confirmed

later.

Herefordshire if possible on this day – so if you are

able to volunteer it would be much appreciated.

Finally, in April, I was also invited by the RICS

to present their conservation awards at a formal

dinner at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

Unfortunately (for me) I was unable to attend as I was

returning from Italy that night but Philip Belchere as

Vice Chairman was able to go and fly the flag for

IHBC. It is good to be asked to such events as your

chairman as I do genuinely see them as recognition of

the role that we play and confirmation that we do have

a voice in the region with the other big players. When I

started as chairman one of my (largely unspoken)

aims was to try and make more effective contact with

bodies such as RIBA and RICS and hopefully

attendance at such events means that we are

achieving some measure of success.

My trip to Italy was hugely enjoyable but not

without a tinge of regret, again, that in so many ways

we are far behind our continental neighbours in terms

of successful conservation. I am aware that some

countries see our “system”, our legislation, as

enormously effective – and as far as buildings are

concerned – we are pretty successful. But in terms of

townscapes we lag woefully behind.

In the space of twelve months I have coursed

through cobbled courtyards in Krakow and marvelled

at marble in Pisa, Florence and Bologna. I have

traipsed over enormous herringbone slabs of black

basalt and grey granite, and tiny cobbles that have

taken pedestrian and vehicular traffic for hundreds of

years. I have walked in the sun and the rain, in

daylight and at night time in the light from carefully

crafted cast iron streetlamps – testament to the skill of

the patternmakers and iron foundries. All bear witness

not only to the practical durability and longevity of

quality materials but also to the philosophies of the

guardians of these historic continental city centres.

Historic streets are not ripped up in the latest dash to

spend the latest “European Grant” monies on another

transient flight of fancy designed by a landscape

architect striving to be creative with concrete. Historic

lamp standards aren’t ripped out to be replaced with

galvanised steel “Heritat”. And crucially there aren’t

armies of ambulance-chasing, commission-conscious,

legal advisers waiting on every street corner to fight

your compensation case in the unlikely event that you

slide on a slippery slab, or trip on tilted granite.

CHAIRMAN'S COLUMN

Dave Burton-Pye

AWARDS & OBSERVATIONS

I’d like to think that somewhere along the line IHBC is

increasingly recognised locally as well as nationally

for the contribution that our members make to the

conservation cause and three recent events have

brought this to mind.

In February, I attended a MADE event at the

Custard Factory in Birmingham where the head of the

RIBA West Midlands region suggested to me that

IHBC might like to play a part in their regional

architectural awards and this is something that branch

officers will consider (I think I’ve read on the IHBC

website that one of the other regions has been

similarly involved elsewhere)

Then in March I was invited as the IHBC

representative to an opening day at Croome Park in

Worcestershire to celebrate the joint work by the

National Trust and Natural England to restore this

enormously important landscape. It is Lancelot

‘Capability’ Brown’s first complete design and here he

designed not only the park, but also remodelled the

house and is thought to have designed the Rotunda.

The change from intensively farmed arable land back

to permanent grassland has transformed the

landscape and enabled Brown’s original vision to be

much better appreciated. Public access has been

greatly increased and natural habitats have been

much improved. After I spoke to their regional director

at Croome, Jez Brotherton, Natural England’s Historic

Environment Specialist, who will be a speaker at our

September meeting. We do need a volunteer to host

this meeting and I am very keen for us to visit

Newsletter 36 page 1

In essence its further confirmation, if ‘twere

needed, that we need to develop a better appreciation

of our heritage in its widest sense, and make a better

job of preserving areas as well as buildings. All of

which has been said before by many others – it’s just

that visits abroad keep reinforcing my view about the

calamity of the compensation culture and its

devastating effect on culture as a whole.

See you in Warwick.

breadth and depth of his practical knowledge, in terms

of what was needed, but also of his wise philosophical

approach regarding what should be done.

I think that both of these qualities were

encapsulated in his involvement with the restoration of

the statue of Hercules in Shrewsbury. This larger than

life lead figure was originally considerably larger in

some anatomical aspects than most males, but at

some point he had been severely emasculated –

though whether through envy or prudishness is a little

unclear. In advising on the restoration Mickey

apparently said that “Once it's all done he’ll be back to

his former glory. You never know we might even get a

smile out of him.” Lot’s of us will remember getting

smiles out of Mickey.

In the guise of The King Partnership, Mickey

and Mary were involved in two conservation projects

in South Staffordshire in recent years and I was

extremely impressed on both occasions by the

extensive research and cogent explanations that they

gave for the history and evolution of both a farmhouse

and a water mill as part of the planning applications

submitted to my authority. In essence their thorough

approach enabled informed decisions to be taken and

I’d like to think that so many times this is at the heart

of what we all do – or try to do.

Bizarrely I saw Mickey and Mary a couple of

years ago when I was walking in the Lake District.

Having climbed Mont Blanc in 2006 I thought that

camping might be worth a wiz and bought a small

lightweight two man tent that myself and my climbing/

walking mate took to the Lakes for a weekend. On our

return to Braithwaite, Alan and I were almost back at

the car when I happened across Mickey walking back

to his holiday accommodation with his Sunday papers.

He insisted that we come in and say hello to Mary –

which we obviously did before making our way back

home. On another, more recent, occasion I attended

an evening meeting of the Shropshire architects group

to hear a talk by Andrew Arrol about his work at York

Minster. I had gone with my wife and an architect

friend and after the presentation, we walked back to

the car with Mickey and Mary. I’ve seen both of these

friends recently and told them about Mickey’s death

and found it quite remarkable that both had a clear

recollection of him – but both based on only the most

fleeting of conversations with him.

And that’s how I want to finish this tribute.

Mickey King made an impression not just on those

who knew and worked with him professionally, but

also on people to whom he was unknown. He is sorely

missed.

EDITORIAL

Technical Articles Wanted

Sorry, but Issue 35 used up the last technical article

provided for us by Charles Shapcott on matters

structural. So it is up to you readers out there to

provide your West Midlands Regional IHBC

Newsletter with cutting edge information on ‘how to do

it’. Just send me an Email with a Word attachment,

and jpeg illustrations. I will do the rest.

Travel News

I’ve been on my travels again, both to Ireland and

USA, and have various things to contribute. But! But I

do need your feedback on what I write so that if it

doesn’t ring any bells or speak to you in any useful

way I can leave it out in future.

The Editor

PEOPLE 1

At the 2009 AGM the existing branch officers were

returned en bloc, but with the very welcome addition

of Jan Ratcliffe as our new Branch Treasurer in

succession to Mizzy Marshall.

PEOPLE 2

IN MEMORY OF MICKEY KING

Dave Burton-Pye

In my own small way I’d like to put together a few

words in tribute to a man who left a real mark and

made an enormous contribution to the conservation

cause. I can’t remember when I first met Mickey, only

that it was many years ago, long before ACO had

morphed into IHBC, and that he was an exceedingly

vocal contributor to any group discussions. Whatever

anyone else had experienced, Mickey seemed to

have been there. He “had the T-shirt”. He certainly

played a hugely influential role in Liverpool as an arch

exponent of the regeneration through conservation

message, and part of his philosophy about

conservation, and indeed conservation officers, came

through strongly and clearly in an article that he wrote

for the north west newsletter in late 2007. In fact

Mickey’s messages usually came through loud and

clear - a point made exceptionally well in one of the

touching and emotional eulogies given by a close

friend at his funeral. It is a measure of the mark of the

man that the large church was filled with those from all

aspects of his life who came to pay their respects.

You will all know that he regularly attended

our branch meetings here in the West Midlands and

crucially he had something to say. You may have

agreed with him, you may have opposed his views –

but you always knew what Mickey thought about an

issue. Many a time I argued with him during our

meetings, but knew that we could reach some sort of

compromise over a pint during lunch. Those who

worked with him were conscious not just of the

BRANCH MEETING

Day Theme :

GRANT-ENABLED REGENERATION

IN NORTH SHROPSHIRE

9th March 2009

The 9th March Branch AGM and Meeting took place

at the Black Lion Hotel in Scotland Street, Ellesmere,

in the north west of Shropshire. The meeting was

hosted by Philip Belchere, Ruth Hitchen and Rachael

Parry of North Shropshire District Council. Special

thanks to them for arranging an interesting and

informative day. North Shropshire DC lost its identity

by merger into Shropshire unitary authority at the end

of this March.

The day included presentations on (1) current

grant schemes run by North Shropshire DC; and (2)

interpretation of Ellesmere with a special eye to

visitors to the Mere, a popular tourist attraction.

Newsletter 36 page 2

The afternoon involved a walkabout focussing

on visits to the Mere Visitor Centre and the British

Waterways Maintenance Yard on the Shropshire

Union Canal main line just outside the town. In both

locations grant-aided work was on site, and

participants had the opportunity to enter and inspect

both sites.

Lunch was taken at the Black Lion Hotel,

which members had almost entirely to themselves.

The dining area enabled us to see more of what was

clearly a fairly complex multi-period building.

VIEW OUT OF THE WINDOW

9th March 2009

The Branch Meeting and AGM took place in the first

floor club room on the first floor of a rear wing. Access

was off the winding but low main stair of the Black

Lion , with a nice early C19 balustrade and an empty

wall niche on the turn.

Out of the Black Lion Club Room window

Black Lion street frontage

The Club Room had experienced the insertion

of an end bar and an end broom cupboard in the C20

but was still a substantial early-mid C19 room with

original mouldings, glazing, mirrors, strapwork plaster

panels and tie beams supported on ornate carved

wood corbels, featuring masks, merpeople and eagles

(or were they wyverns?). All the detailing was thickly

coated in paint, the top coat being a glossy green.

Application of a paint-stripping poultice promised to

reveal some interesting carving.

Mermaid carved wood corbel, Club Room

The end wall of the dining area retained part

of a timber truss. This, together with the low ceilings

and the presence of boxed-in beams indicated that

the Black Lion was a partly timber-framed building

with an early Victorian frontage and rear wing. A

suitable candidate for an archaeological investigation.

And a hint that the apparently Georgian character of

the town centre represented a re-facing rather than a

re-building.

General view of the Club Room

The view out of the windows was on to the

rear of adjoining Scotland Street properties, and

overlooked the modern corrugated plastic of a

smokers’ shelter in the yard below.

Dining Area of Black Lion with exposed timber framing

at back

Newsletter 36 page 3

INTERPRETING ELLESMERE

Philip Belchere

9th March 2009

The Mere after which Ellesmere had been named had

been a long-established visitor attraction. However,

visitors brought all their necessities with them,

enjoyed the Mere’s amenities, and then went away

again without visiting the town, just up the road. So

local businesses did not benefit significantly. The

District’s strategy was to ‘make the connection’

between Mere and town by establishing a series of

visitor trails, keyed to a limited number of view tables,

interpretation panels and themed sculptures that took

in the (very significant) local industrial archaeology as

well as the town centre itself and sites of special

Nature Conservation interest. Public sculpture was

being built up as a separate theme, there having been

an international sculpture project based locally that

had provided a small core of works as a basis for

more.

casement windows, including two dormers. It had

been repaired, refurbished and slightly extended,

overlooking and opening on to railed timber decking

facing the Mere. The main café area was an attractive

single space under a large, open, scissor truss roof.

The Mere Visitor Centre, Ellesmere

A grant aided scheme was on site refurbishing

the Mere Visitor Centre , with new landscaping on the

publicly accessible Mere shore, linked to a new car

park. This had attracted £1.6m Parks and Gardens

grant funding.

Another future visitor attraction was the

British Waterways Maintenance Yard , a remarkable

industrial and administrative complex dating from the

early 1800s. North Shropshire and other grant money

was being committed here to envelope repairs to

ensure continued survival.

An arm of the Shropshire Union Canal

terminated immediately adjoining the town. A new

Tesco supermarket was being built on an adjoining

site, and the District had already laid out and hard-

landscaped a public open space fronting the canal

arm. Planning permission had also been granted for a

commercial development adjoining Tesco, but this

was now ‘on hold’ as the Credit Crunch had destroyed

its potential profitability for the time being.

Visitor Centre café area

MERE VISITOR CENTRE

9th March 2009

The Mere is located immediately to the SE of the

town, with the A495 running along its SW shore. It is

the most famous of several meres in the immediate

area, owing their existence, very probably, to the

jumble of small local hills left behind by the last Ice

Age. The Mere was developed as a private amenity

by a local land-owning family, and only passed by

benefaction into the public domain during the C20.

The eastern shore remains part of a private park and

the north shoreline is now quite heavily wooded.

Wildfowl are conspicuous – perambulating geese

being an informal ‘traffic calming’ feature.

The publicly accessible part of the Mere is

now being radically refurbished with the aid of a Parks

and Gardens grant. At the time of the Branch visit, a

new hard-surfaced shoreside walk was in place,

flanked by a strip of soft landscaping between it and

the road. Further hard landscaping was in progress,

and the refurbishment of the largest existing building,

the café, advanced to the point of final finishes and

fittings. Three varied boathouses (one with an

elaborate late C19 tiled roof) had yet to be

refurbished. There was also a small cottage ornee in

the midst of the works area.

The café was an attractive 1930s building in

the ‘sports pavilion’ style, featuring both half-timbering

with herringbone brick nogging and shiplap boarding;

with a large steep pantiled roof and many multi-paned

Main frontage gable

Terrace overlooking the Mere – with boathouses

The project was intended to be up-and-

running for the 2009 visitor season. Amenities

Newsletter 36 page 4

included a new, secluded car park being created up a

ramp and behind banks on the opposite side of the

main road.

21st century engineering working methods without

significant alteration. BW has considered the

possibility of creating modern facilities close to the

site but any future development will need to be

sympathetic to the setting.

BW is considering appropriate future leisure-

focused uses of the buildings particularly in relation to

heritage and craft skills units.

On inspection, the Yard proved to be a major late

Georgian industrial and administrative site, with a

cluster of II* and II Listings.

Most conspicuously sited is a two storey

managerial residence overlooking the 90-degree bend

in the Canal main line and the junction with the

Ellesmere town arm. The house features a two-storey

bow on the angle and sits within its own gardens.

Visitor Centre in its wider setting

BRITISH WATERWAYS

MAINTENANCE YARD

9th March 2009

Thank you to Kate Lynch , British Waterways heritage

adviser, for arranging access and a guided inspection.

Her site description follows:

Many maintenance yards survive in the BW Estate in

varying degrees of completeness. Ellesmere yard is

particularly significant because of its origins, c1800;

because of its traceable evolution; and because of its

high degree of completeness. There has been

continued use of the site for the past 200 years.

The site was developed from 1797, and

adequately mapped from 1839. The cottage, dry

dock, and a major part of the workshops date from

this time. The workshop range was extended and

altered in 1840-1 884, and the timber store, sawmill

and engine house built during the same period.

There was a major remodelling of the

workshops between 1884 and 1901, when the site

became a full-scale engineering works. The office and

store was part of this phase .

The site reached its peak of development after World

War I, by which time the canal’s requirements in iron,

timber and concrete were being produced with the aid

of additional cranes, saws and steam engines.

Since the 1940s, the site has been in slow

decline, with the loss of facilities (cranes, engines and

saws) and functions. The dry dock is the only element

still performing its original role. The buildings have

many minor defects, but there is no evidence of

deterioration sufficient to justify demolition, as all the

buildings have some statutory protection. The

buildings have survived partly because they are

useful, partly because they are adaptable. There is

therefore potential for their continuing use.

Some of the buildings are on the local

authority’s buildings at risk list. BW has secured

funding via North Shropshire District Council’s

Buildings at Risk fund to carry out some repairs to the

buildings. This consists of roof and brickwork repairs

and repairs to rainwater goods. We have received

listed building consent for the work.

British Waterways is considering various

options to secure the future use of the buildings at

Ellesmere Yard. (The dry dock is still used on a

regular basis for boat maintenance. Part of this

building is also used as British Waterways offices and

will remain so).

However many of the other buildings on the

site are now used as storage. They are not suited to

Managerial residence at canal junction

A range of service buildings including stables

continue the house west along the waterway frontage.

This range forms a flank to the road access to the

Maintenance Yard proper.

House stables seen from Maintenance Yard

At the eastern end of the yard is the Grade II

manager’s house. It is two storey brick that has

unfortunately suffered painting. Opposite, alongside

the Canal, is the Dry Dock. This has a two-storey east

face with the ground floor originally operating as a cart

shed. The cart sheds are now offices. The building is

executed in random stonework with rough ashlar

dressings. Roof is slate and hipped. On the south face

a top-hung sliding door faces on to an open dock.

Below the door are stop planks. Inside is the dry dock

itself. The dock is in regular commercial use with a

schedule of bookings for underwater cleaning,

painting and repair of canal boats. The dock is

emptied through a sluice system that drains into local

streams at a lower level than the canal itself. The

interior of the dock is an impressive space under a

complex open trussed roof.

Newsletter 36 page 5

industrial building with style, an eaves cornice

supporting a shallow hipped roof, and an open ground

floor with slender columns supporting a ship-lap faced

first floor with casement windows.

Maintenance Yard – Manager’s House. Oh dear,

painted brickwork!

Timber Store

The Yard itself has a modern tarmac surface

but contains, covered over, the remains of the on-site

narrow gauge railway and the one surviving large

crane (there originally having been two).

The largest range occupies the south side of

the yard, comprising the heavy timber shop nearest

the canal, with a ground floor forge and a first floor

woodworking shop next door. Construction is partly

random stone and partly brick, with some of the brick

panels set within timber framing. The first floor

carpentry shop has a splendid, almost full length

‘north light’ dormer.

Dock – inside view. Work in progress with scaffolding

Carpentry shop roof

Waterside view of dock building

The entrance to the yard proper is flanked by

a timber hut of c1900 that once was the site

administration office, with a series of little exterior

features surviving from that use.

Overhead crane in Heavy Timber Store

Current site works were concentrated on this

range, with either relaying or patching of the slate roof

(new Welsh and reclaimed respectively) with

repairing/reinstating flashing and rooflight glazing.

Repair specification had been prepared by Purcell

Miller and Tritton as consultants and was being

executed under the in-house supervision of BW’s

building surveyors.

Site administration office – many original features

On the east side of the Yard, away from the

water, is the Timber Store of c1840. This is an

Newsletter 36 page 6

A large proportion of the interest lies in the

fact that all three shops retain their original equipment,

as enhanced in the C19 and C20, with almost

everything operational and functional, including the

shaft and belt drive system, now powered by an

electric motor. There were full sets of tools and a

formidable gantry crane in the heavy timber shop.

Comments

This is clearly a major industrial history site, with a

large degree of survival from the turn of the C18,

representing on a small, provincial scale the first

phase of the Industrial Revolution.

Location is in easy walking distance along the

towpath from the town wharf. There is another

pedestrian access (which we used) through the nature

reserve on the other side of the main road from the

Mere Interpretation Centre.

It wasn’t clear (and I forgot to ask) whether

the main house was still owned by BW or had passed

into private hands. Whatever, it remains a major

element in the whole complex (irrespective of the fact

that Thomas Telford lived there for a little while) and

needs to be included in the interpretation packaging

even if not actually publicly accessible. A documentary

search could turn up some useful material.

ELLESMERE

9th March 2009

As I drove up the A528 the geography changed. The

road passed through and over a chaotic jumble of low

but steep little hills. Ellesmere itself is built on and

around some of these, with the Parish Church and the

former castle site on top. I looked on the internet later

and confirmed that this land formation – and no doubt

the meres too – was the end result of glaciation, being

the rubble left behind when the ice retreated.

As I arrived

earlier than expected, I was able to walk around

before the Branch meeting began. There was a

considerable amount of visibly C18 building, with, here

and there, hints of earlier half-timbering. Then, clear

signs of early/mid C19 prosperity presumably

connected with the canal and perhaps the railway.

With a further element dating from the late C19 and

early C20.

Particularly eye-catching was the Early

Victorian Italianate Town Hall , with bracketed eaves so

deep as to be almost Swiss in appearance. It seemed

to be vacant and in need of new uses and occupiers.

Up Scotland Street was the Market Hall of – I think –

1879. It had a brick frontage with a strongly

Romanesque central portal, with doors to match. It

remains in use and is open for trading on market days.

Also on Scotland Street was the Post Office –

Edwardian, with a terracotta-faced ground floor and its

original eccentric arts-and-crafts-classical glazing

bars.

Ellesmere Town Hall –in need of new uses

Romanesque style Covered Market

The Town Wharf was very much ‘work in

progress’ with a large newly-landscaped area abutting

the Canal arm. This featured a varied expanse of

concrete pavers and a surprising number of bollards –

both cast iron and timber, together with rows of newly-

planted saplings. Awaiting attention was a derelict

waterside warehouse of the former Shropshire Union

Canal company, complete with painted signage.

A particular feature of the town centre was the

surprisingly number of large and impressive purpose-

built banks. Reflecting, I suppose, Ellesmere’s status

as a local ‘service centre’ as well as the prosperity

brought to the town by canal, railway and their

associated industries.

Gothic style almshouses near wharf

Newsletter 36 page 7

Wharf – derelict Shropshire Union warehouse

Swords Castle – where the money came from

Edwardian Post Office

Forest of bollards at the Wharf

SWORDS CASTLE

The Editor

I had an extended weekend in Ireland during March,

which included an ‘at leisure’ day in Fingal County,

immediately north of Dublin City. The County Town of

Fingal is Swords. Swords has a castle. What I could

quite fairly describe as ‘restoration’ work was on site.

With, as a sign said, finance from the EEC. Ashlar

dressings were being 100% replaced. Masonry

consolidation seemed to be heavy-handed. And there

was a real amount of imaginative work. All the

doorway ironwork owed its design to the Celtic Revival

of the C19. The woodwork of the roof of the Great

Tower was great fun, being a full-blooded Hiberno-

Romanesque design owing virtually nothing to an

attempt at authenticity. The

overall result seemed to be great fun, but lacking

conservative retention of all salveable details,

particularly where ashlar masonry was concerned.

Swords Castle – 100% new window stonework

Roof timberwork in Great Tower, Swords Castle

Newsletter 36 page 8

Swords Castle – from bailey, Great Tower in centre

Moravian Tileworks – open cloisters around a ‘U’-plan

courtyard

MORAVIAN TILEWORKS,

Doylestown, Pennsylvania,

USA

The Editor

I spend three weeks in Pennsylvania, USA, in May.

On an expedition to the tourist honeypot of New Hope,

on the Delaware River, I encountered a quite

extraordinary building. It had been purpose built as a

tile works to the design of amateur architect Henry

Mercer 1911-12. To my European eye it was very

strongly evocative of Gaudi’s exactly contemporary

work in Catalonia, Spain, avoiding rigidly straight lines

and decorated with coloured tiling.

Tile-decorated chimneys

Interpretative captioning

With one significant difference. Gaudi used

brick and stone to create his curvilinear forms. In

Pennsylvania, Turner used 100% concrete, for both

structure and facework. The concrete was very crude,

with massive amounts of aggregate. It had been laid

between shuttering as though it were pise. And the

vaulting of the open cloisters had been very crudely

shuttered, with a layer of Hessian between the

concrete and the shuttering.

The roof was of poured concrete, heavily

aggregate-dressed. Yet, despite being almost 100

years old, there was little sign of distress from the

severely ‘continental’ climate of very hot summers and

very cold winters.

The encrusting of the chimney shafts and caps

with decorative tilework were especially reminiscent of

Gaudi.

The whole building sat by itself in immaculately

cared-for parkland and was being operated as a

heritage site open to the public.

Cloister vaulting

General view

Newsletter 36 page 9

Exterior frontage wall piers

EDITOR'S SHOPPING LIST

Your Editor welcomes, for the next Edition of the

Newsletter (No 37), to go out in September 2009, the

following:

 Personal news of moves, retirements, arrivals;

 Copies of announcements and press releases;

 Case Studies;

 Letters;

 Articles on Law and Techniques;

 Book Reviews.

Material for inclusion in No 37 should,

preferably, arrive not later than the end of August

2009. Please contact your Newsletter Editor :

Peter Arnold, 16 Elmbank Road, Walsall WS5 4EL;

01922 644219; pdarnold@care4free.net

PICTURE POSTSCRIPT

Swords Castle, modern door with Celtic Revival

ironwork. Also 100% repointing

The Waterfront, Ellesmere

Ellesmere – two boathouses on the Mere

Moravian Tileworks, Doylestown – end gable

Showing consecutive concrete pourings

Newsletter 36 page 10