Ryedale building conservation and heritage fair

 09.30 coffee and hellos
10.00: principles of conservation and repair - Nigel Copsey
Or: mud masonry – Ben Gourley
11.00 more coffee
11.30: why use lime, and how? – Andy Lawson
Or: stone conservation and repair – Sam Baxter
12.30: lunch and demonstrations
2.00: ornamental plaster – Matthew Windross
Or: traditional materials and sustainability – Mark Womersley
3.00: tea and biscuits
3.15: the importance of recording and analysis – Alex Holton
Or: stones of malton and ryedale – Richard Myerscough & Nigel Copsey
4.15: conserving and sustaining the landscape and garden heritage of malton & norton – Peter Goodchild

Peter’s talk will be followed by a perambulation with him of the riverside gardens of york house and the talbot hotel, itself an important eighteenth century inn of some distinction, with exceptional views from the terrace overlooking the valley of the river derwent and the escarpment of the wolds. 7.30: evening session, york house: peter goldsborough, music, drinks and tapas displays: the cultural landscape of malton and the wolds malton and norton horse-racing heritage the york house project ryedale vernacular buildings materials research group demonstrations: stone preparation – stephen pickering brick-making – york handmade brick company handmade roof-tiles – sandtoft ornate interiors breathable floors – chalkhill lime products stone carving – the team limes and using lime – the team mud masonry – ben gourley lime plastering – andy lawson/matthew windross to book onto talks contact nigelcopsey@hotmail.com 07845 739 594

Old buildings of traditional construction need to perform as their builders intended – they need to breathe; they need to be structurally flexible. If this need is compromised or ignored, old buildings will fail; we, as their current custodians will have failed in our duty of care. They and those that built them, or adapted them to their needs over centuries, deserve to be understood; their evolution and the craft practices of those that worked upon them deserves to be respected - by those charged to work upon them today and by the methods and materials they use to do so. To retain the maximum of character and authenticity, old buildings should be repaired only when this is structurally necessary and only with compatible materials of appropriate composition and performance, or else in a way that changes their historic character the least and involves the minimum loss of authenticity and historic fabric. There can be no more satisfying, nor more important an arena for craftspeople of merit, using materials of quality, than that of building conservation and repair, where modesty more than ego, humility more than arrogance hold sway and where true communication with those that came before us in our craft may be discovered and developed every day, and the learning curve is endless. Most failure in old buildings is not caused by age, but by inappropriate responses to the inevitability of aging. Modern materials, responding to the requirements of modern building technology, are not bad in themselves – they are mostly bad for old buildings. In the case of old buildings, Stephen Gardiner is surely right in asserting that “The greater the step forward in knowledge, the greater is one be taken backward in search of wisdom” (House). Historic and cultural value is a non-renewable resource and what may have taken centuries to accumulate may be lost in a moment of haste or ignorance today. Join us in Malton, North Yorkshire, on the 27th & 28th of June 2008

Contact nigelcopsey@hotmail.com Estate Office Stables, 90 Old Maltongate, Malton, North Yorkshire, YO17 7EG