{"id":28908,"date":"2021-01-19T16:05:48","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T16:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogsnew.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=28908"},"modified":"2021-01-18T18:33:53","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T18:33:53","slug":"ihbcs-cpd-spotlight-spabs-archive-exhibition-on-the-work-of-william-weir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=28908","title":{"rendered":"IHBC\u2019s CPD Spotlight: SPAB\u2019s Archive Exhibition on the work of William Weir"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"SPAB<\/a>As part of Explore Your Archive 2020, the SPAB is celebrating the work of architect William Weir and marking 70 years since his death in 1950.<\/h3>\n

SPAB writes:<\/p>\n

Perhaps best known for his repair of landmark buildings such as Eastbury Manor in Barking, and Tattershall and Bodiam Castles, as well as a great many smaller buildings and churches countrywide, Weir was closely associated with SPAB\u2019s co-founder Philip Webb, and with the Society for much of his career.<\/p>\n

The SPAB archive houses a series of William Weir’s notebooks and building reports, and his correspondence and condition reports are contained in numerous historic casework files stored in the archive. The notebooks include plans, sketches, and extensive notes about the buildings that Weir visited on behalf of the Society. The reports he wrote for us provided vital information at the time and today the materials are valuable to researchers about the history of individual buildings and the changes to villages, towns and cities across the UK….<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Brief biography<\/h2>\n
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William Weir was born in Edinburgh in 1865. He left school at 16 to work as a paying pupil in Glasgow with the architect Archibald MacPherson. This gave Weir a good background in church buildings as MacPherson was predominantly an ecclesiastical architect. After two years, Weir moved to London to work for Leonard Stokes, again as a paying pupil. It was while working for Stokes that Weir met Charles Winmill and the two became lifelong friends often holidaying together and touring the country on their high bicycles. Weir stayed with Stokes for six years before starting work for Philip Webb, co-founder of the SPAB, in 1889. And\u00a0this time Weir was earning a small salary.<\/p>\n

The eight years Weir spent working for Webb rooted in him more firmly in the idea of repair rather than restoration, and it was now that Weir started to regularly carry out work for\u00a0the Society, although he would not become a Committee member until 1902.<\/p>\n

Weir worked for J T Micklethwaite, who was Surveyor to the Fabric of Westminster Abbey, for one year before setting up his own practice….<\/p>\n

Weir’s working method<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Reginald Snell summed up Weir’s working method as follows:<\/p>\n

“Most important among the factors which go to make the system notable is his practice of employing direct labour and of obtaining materials at first hand. He does not work from a city office as most architects do. He relies on the men he has trained and upon unremitting personal supervision for his success. Most architects employ men who have been accustomed to their methods by always engaging a builder of their choice. But this does not always prove successful, for builders are at the disposal of many different architects, both those who restore and those who repair, and their men, more or less bewildered by the contrary instructions of different firms, are hesitant and fearful when they are not actively ignorant and thoughtless. On the other hand the men employed by Mr Weir know no other master, and when they are not directly trained by him they learn their special craft from others of older standing who have had that benefit. Thus tradition in repairs true and right as the great building tradition of the middle ages itself is being evolved. Mr Weir\u2019s work has not been confined to the tradesmen alone, for he has from time to time taught younger architects, and through them has helped to establish a school of repair which must have a lasting effect on the architectural learning of our country.” Snell,\u00a0William Weir and Dartington Hall\u00a0<\/em>(1986) p 31…<\/p>\n

The church at Eglwys Brewis was the last building that Weir worked on under the direct supervision of Webb, though Webb always had input into all the cases that Weir and other SPAB caseworkers were involved in through his role on the Committee.<\/p>\n

William Weir carried out the Committee\u2019s recommendations for the treatment of the chancel arch which involved rebuilding the decayed core by interspersing seams of concrete with two-course bonds of flat stones \u2013 Weir referred to this system as \u201cWebb\u2019s sandwiches\u201d. These \u201csandwiches\u201d were inserted through one side of the wall, leaving the other intact throughout.<\/p>\n

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

As part of Explore Your Archive 2020, the SPAB is celebrating the work of architect William Weir and marking 70 years since his death in 1950.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28908","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\/28908","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28909,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28908\/revisions\/28909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}