{"id":8131,"date":"2014-07-23T18:04:59","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T17:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=8131"},"modified":"2014-07-22T16:28:50","modified_gmt":"2014-07-22T15:28:50","slug":"spab-announces-winners-of-john-betjeman-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=8131","title":{"rendered":"SPAB announces winners of John Betjeman Award\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The winner of this year\u2019s award is St George\u2019s Church, Hinton St George, Somerset, while Lanercost Priory and Tewkesbury Abbey were highly commended by the judges<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The SPAB writes<\/span>:
\nThe John Betjeman award is given to celebrate excellence in the conservation and repair of places of worship of any faith in England and Wales, although cathedrals are not eligible. It recognises and rewards the highest standards of conservation craftsmanship and the winning project is publicised as an example to others of good practice.\u00a0 The award is made for specific repair to, or conservation of, a single element of a church\u2019s fabric, fitting or furnishing and is given to the place of worship rather than to any individual associated with the work. It celebrates the project, the building and the community that cares for it.<\/p>\n

Three very different projects were shortlisted – textile conservation at Lanercost Priory, stone repair at Tewkesbury Abbey and monument conservation at St George\u2019s Church, Hinton St George, Somerset. The judges selected Hinton as this year\u2019s winner by a majority vote. However, they found it a particularly difficult decision to reach given the quality of all the projects and agreed that Lanercost and Tewkesbury should both be \u2018Highly Commended\u2019.\u00a0 All three shortlisted projects had a great deal to commend them as examples of good practice in sensitive repair.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

St George\u2019s Church, Hinton St George, Somerset: Winner
\n<\/span>The parish had been successful in securing grant support to repair the Poulett Chapel, which occupies the eastern end of the church\u2019s north aisle, and conserve the collection of Poulett family monuments in the chapel.<\/p>\n

The repair of the memorial to John, 1st Baron Poulet (d 1649) formed the final phase of this work and was carried out by Lynne Humphries and Emma Norris of Humphries and Jones Ltd?The monument\u2019s conservation was informed by a preliminary conservation assessment and recommendations, and decision-making as the project proceeded was in close collaboration with the inspecting architect, Philip Hughes. A minimum intervention approach informed by documentary research and extensive trials was followed. ??Overpaint was removed to reveal underlying original scagliola and research indicates that this memorial might, in fact, be the earliest example of use of scagliola in England (dated to c1667-69). A survey identified embedded ironwork but this was only removed where it was accessible and its corrosion clearly damaging the memorial. The fabric was not opened in other areas to reach it. \u2018Blown\u2019 surfaces were consolidated and retained rather than being renewed. Barrier layers (Paraloid or Primal) were used between original fabric and conservation interventions: the work is, therefore, identifiable and reversible.<\/p>\n

Fills (principally in Plaster of Paris) were specified to be lighter and less strong than the substrate, and toned in to harmonise with the original. Detached sections of original scagliola were salvaged and refixed. Gilding and paint were consolidated but not renewed. The monument, therefore, retains its faded appearance.??Interestingly, the conservators resisted remodelling missing elements such as the cherub\u2019s face and principal figures\u2019 missing arms as the visual and documentary evidence is not substantial and they wished to avoid conjecture.\u00a0 Later crude additions, such as poorly-modelled arms, were removed.\u00a0 However, a part of the original arm from one of the figures was identified amongst architectural fragments found in the chapel and has been refixed.<\/p>\n

Lanercost Priory: Highly Commended
\n<\/span>The parish received HLF funding to conserve the remarkable dossal designed for the church by William Morris in 1881. Installed at Easter 1887, the dossal, which is 705 cm long by 125cm deep, has remained in situ ever since. After initial gentle vacuuming to remove dust and insect debris, and carrying out trials, the dossal was cleaned by Royal Manufacturers de Wit of Belgium using their aerosol suction cleaning system, which removed significant amounts of air-borne soiling.<\/p>\n

This gave a good result but, unfortunately, led to slight shrinkage of the dossal along its length. The parish wished, after conservation, to retain the dossal in situ in its original location, rather than treating it as a \u2018museum object\u2019 and placing it in a glass case.\u00a0 It was, therefore, relined and rehung using Velcro fixings on a renewed wooden supporting frame, although the original hanging rings were retained. Later edging fabric which was not original to the dossal was removed, and the mouse- and moth-damaged bottom edge was consolidated using backing cloth dyed to match the faded original. Whereas crude mending darns were removed and replaced by smaller supporting patches applied to the back of the dossal, other mending and broken threads were retained where they were not actively damaging to the fabric. Steps were also taken to improve the environment in the church to assist with the long term care of the dossal.<\/p>\n

A programme of environmental monitoring has been introduced to help manage temperature and humidity, and the parish has instituted a detailed monthly and yearly \u2018housekeeping\u2019 regime, drawn up with the conservator\u2019s advice, to guard against insect pests and minimise light damage, for example covering the dossal with blackout blinds when the church is not in use.<\/p>\n

The judges commended the parish\u2019s careful approach to extending the life of this remarkable object, allowing it to age gracefully, and explaining clearly the judgements they had had to make and the justification for the work carried out.<\/p>\n

Tewkesbury Abbey: Highly Commended
\n<\/span>The Friends group funded the consolidation and repair of the remains of the former cloister on the south side of the Abbey, carried out by the Abbey\u2019s architect Andrew Townsend with Hirst Conservation and conservator Sally Strachey. The cloister had been destroyed at the Reformation, leaving fragmentary remains \u2013 blind tripartite panels with a decorative trefoil band – on the south wall of the Abbey. Previously damaged by fire on more than one occasion and subject to unsympathetic cement mortar repairs the surface of the stonework was decayed. ?The project used a full range of lime-based conservation and architectural techniques, targeted to address particular problems, in order to consolidate the stone surface. The whole wall has been protected with a limewash shelter coat and by the addition of a simple lead-covered projecting roof to throw off rainwater.\u00a0 ??The judges were impressed by the sensitive and minimal intervention approach taken to the project, through which the architect had succeeded in retaining the maximum amount of historic fabric possible and which clearly followed the SPAB\u2019s guiding principles to a well-justified conclusion.<\/p>\n

SPAB further details …\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The winner of this year\u2019s award is St George\u2019s Church, Hinton St George, Somerset, while Lanercost Priory and Tewkesbury Abbey were highly commended by the judges. The SPAB writes: The John Betjeman award is given to celebrate excellence in the … 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-8131","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\/8131","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=8131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8132,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8131\/revisions\/8132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}