{"id":28153,"date":"2020-11-04T17:48:23","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T17:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogsnew.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=28153"},"modified":"2020-11-04T17:48:23","modified_gmt":"2020-11-04T17:48:23","slug":"ihbc-signpost-from-the-spab-archive-rational-builders-and-william-weir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=28153","title":{"rendered":"IHBC signpost, from the SPAB archive: Rational Builders and William Weir"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The SPAB look back on the work of Scottish architect William Weir (1865-1950), one of our most respected caseworkers, and was part of a group of dedicated experts active in the first 50 years of the SPAB.<\/h3>\n

image: The SPAB website<\/em><\/h6>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2026ancient architecture was an essence & reality, not a \u2018style\u2019 which might be resumed in another kind of society<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

…Webb wrote: \u2018Truly it looks more \u2018ancient\u2019 than before you laid hands on it…<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

The SPAB writes:<\/p>\n

In 1982 the SPAB held an exhibition called \u2018A School of Rational Builders\u2019 at the Drawings Collection of the British Architectural Library on Portman Square, London W2.<\/p>\n

The title of the exhibition is a quote by William Lethaby (1857-1931) describing the SPAB in one of his writings about Ernest Gimson (1864-1919), whose history and work featured in the exhibition. He wrote:<\/p>\n

\u2018Here [at the SPAB] Gimson\u2019s love for old buildings deepened into a passionate reverence, and from this very regard he early came to see that ancient architecture was an essence & reality, not a \u2018style\u2019 which might be resumed in another kind of society at will by a different kind of people. It is a curious fact that this Society, engaged in an intense study of antiquity, became a school of rational builders and modern building.\u2019<\/p>\n

The exhibition comprised of a selection of material from the Society\u2019s archive from the 50-year period 1877-1927 and highlighted the wealth of documents, photographs and drawings in the Society\u2019s collection which explored the history of the SPAB and its founding principles, but also into the work of less famous associates of the Society whose achievements in the area of the preservation of historic buildings were extensive and critical. The history and casework of figures including William Weir, who surveyed extensively for the SPAB; George Jack, who was Weir\u2019s site architect and was responsible for the damage report on Rievaulx Abbey in 1908; and Alfred Powell, a craftsman and architect who compiled a series of pamphlets along with A.R. Powys on English cottage and farm buildings for the Society.<\/p>\n

One of the buildings which William Weir worked on and which was featured in the exhibition is the Church of St Margaret Marlos, Eglwys Cummin in South Glamorgan. The site is thought to be ancient, founded by Saint Cynin in the fifth century, though the present building is medieval.\u00a0 This church had been visited by Philip Webb (co-founder of the SPAB) on the request if Mr Trehernem the agent for the property and a member of the Society. Weir was the architect chosen to supervise the repairs needed. On receiving Weir\u2019s photographs of the repaired church in November 1901, Webb wrote: \u2018Truly it looks more \u2018ancient\u2019 than before you laid hands on it \u2026 the continuous solid looking stone ridge is more than worth the money it cost. The pointing too \u2013 now, looks really workmanlike.\u2019<\/p>\n

The life and work of William Weir will be celebrated during this year\u2019s Explore Your Archive festival in November with a talk by Michael Drury, senior partner at St. Ann\u2019s Gate Architects and author of \u2018Wandering Architects\u2019. There will also be an online exhibition of Weir\u2019s notebooks and reports on the buildings that he visited on behalf of the Society and the repair works that were carried out to accompany the talk.<\/p>\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The SPAB look back on the work of Scottish architect William Weir (1865-1950), one of our most respected caseworkers, and was part of a group of dedicated experts active in the first 50 years of the SPAB. image: The SPAB … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28159,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28153\/revisions\/28159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}