Anglo Romanian Lime Burning

THE CREATION OF THE VAR INITIATIVE LTD

WHAT IS THE VAR INITIATIVE LTD?

VAR is an acronym for Vernacular Architecture Revival, Renaissance, Regeneration, Revisited, Revitalised, Rediscovered…..

There are many different possibilities for the "R" in VAR, but they all relate to a revival or re-awakening of interest in Vernacular Architecture, and hence the recognition of the value of such buildings in our heritage and the importance of the resources needed to maintain them.

Incidentally VAR is also the Romanian (and Bulgarian) word for lime, one of the most important building materials in our vernacular architecture.

Making VAR with our Romanian friends was the first step in creating this initiative.

THE PURPOSE OF THE VAR INITIATIVE

There is a nationwide problem in the decline of traditional building skills and this is reflected in the Northern Region.

There are strong vernacular building styles in the North Pennines and Fells & Dales Leader areas and throughout the wider North of England.

There is increasing concern that the resources to maintain this cultural built heritage are in serious decline.

The VAR Initiative Ltd is a social enterprise which has been established with assistance from Enterprising Communities for the purpose of attempting to address this issue.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE VAR INITIATIVE

There were two main catalysts which contributed to the creation of VAR:

The Anglo-Romanian Lime-burning Project:
Four of the founder members participated in the Leader funded Romanian study trip to study the production of lime in Romania. The fifth founder member, Martin Clark organised the project through his organisation, Grampus Heritage& Training Ltd, and we all subsequently played a part in the second stage of this project where the Romanians came to stay in the North Pennines to burn lime in 2006. This project stimulated many ideas including the creation of some mechanism for promoting traditional skills and developing training, looking at transferability of skills between European regions and developing networks.

The Wallington Hall Conference held in September 2005:
On September 30th 2005, the Northumberland National Park Authority in association with English Heritage and the National Trust hosted a conference and an exhibition at Wallington Hall, Northumberland on the theme of the decline in traditional building skills. At this conference the National Heritage Training Group presented a skills report that highlighted a nationwide problem in the decline of traditional building skills. The conference and the exhibition attracted hundreds of visitors including leading building and conservation professionals.

Four of the founder members of VAR attended this event and recognised the need to undertake research at a regional level where our vernacular architecture could be at risk. Not only does it appear that the resources are in decline, but the knowledge about them remains on a local or individual basis with insufficient dissemination across the sector.

In some areas of the UK, social enterprises and/or voluntary organisations already exist to promote use of particular materials relevant to that area and to promote traditional building skills and crafts. However there is no such existing organisation within our own region. The need clearly exists and VAR has been established to address the problem within the Northern region.

PROJECTS

Our mission statement is:
'To develop, promote and share traditional building crafts, skills and materials using ethical, environmentally friendly and sustainable methods'

VAR aims to ensure that the skills and materials are available to maintain our vernacular heritage within the Northern region in the future. VAR will also promote traditional methods and use of locally sourced materials as a sustainable solution to creating modern buildings.

Our first steps towards doing this have been:

establishing the existing skills base and sources of local materials, within the North Pennines and Fells and Dales areas and the wider North of England. (This will be an ongoing process but the findings so far are the subject of the afternoon seminar)

Undertaking exploratory visits which will inform VAR of best practice elsewhere in the UK

The findings from these exercises will form the basis of a strategy for the future activity of VAR.

WHO WE ARE

Martin Clark
Martin has a background in Forestry having been Joint Head of the National School of Forestry at Newton Rigg in the early 1990's. He is a Co-Director of the forestry consultancy company Clark Mactavish Limited, and over the last 14 years Martin and his staff at Grampus Heritage & Training Ltd have operated Europe's largest international vocational training programme with partners in 32 European states. His interest in vernacular architecture stems from 1997 when he wrote the EU "Raphael" supported project "Preserving and Reconstructing Ancient Buildings of Wood" followed by a EU "Culture 2000" project in 2005 as a partner in "European Vernacular Architecture Cultural Exchange".

Peter Coverdale
After completing an apprenticeship as a Banker Mason and gaining a Distinction at the Building Crafts Training School in London, Peter together with his wife Susan established P & S Coverdale Masonry Contractors Ltd. Their work has evolved from stonemasonry and carving to include not only building conservation and repair but also the sympathetic adaptation and extension of historic structures, including the restoration of many Listed Buildings working closely with English Heritage. They are currently working for the North of England Civic Trust on the restoration of Gayle Mill, one of the entrants in the BBC "Restoration" competition.

Peter Kempsey
Peter is a Registered Architect, having qualified in 1973. After the contrast of working in local authority offices in the North of England and spending two years as an architect in the West Indies, he established Countryside Consultants in 1983. The range of projects is wide with a distinct orientation towards conversion and restoration of historic and interesting buildings. Peter has been fortunate to have responsibility for projects involving three mediaeval castles, various bastle houses and many other Listed Buildings and Scheduled Monuments in the company portfolio. He is in the process of applying for accreditation as an architect specialising in building conservation.

Sonia Kempsey
Sonia is a planning consultant and has been a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) since 1973. Her interest in vernacular architecture and historic buildings developed with planning positions working in the Cotswolds, the Scottish Highlands and Whitehaven Georgian Town Centre, before co-founding Countryside Consultants in 1983. She recently spent nearly three years providing planning advice for farm diversification projects throughout North Yorkshire. The project involved a wide variety of vernacular styles and local variations. She is committed to ensuring that our rural heritage is retained for future generations to enjoy.

Peter Messenger
After completing a degree in Geography, Peter took an MA in Vernacular Architecture and Historic Building Conservation at Manchester University under Ron Brunskill. He later completed a Diploma in Town & Country Planning and became a Member of the RTPI. He has been a Member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation since its inception and has been Conservation Officer for Carlisle City Council since 1988. He has worked as a consultant for English Heritage and has considerable experience of producing Conservation Plans for historic sites. He has lectured widely and carried out research on a range of vernacular architecture topics including the Clay Dabbins of the Solway Plain. He is currently developing a strategy with English Heritage to protect and preserve these buildings.

THE FUTURE OF VAR

Follow-up work from the 21st March 2007 conference
Publish the data-base of skills and materials (This provides the base-line data to inform us in our future work).
The publication should lead to the expansion of the data base as we are informed of omissions and requests for inclusion.
Develop a website to publicise the data-base, explain the work of VAR, and as a further development of the website, create a network of interested individuals, organisations, practitioners and suppliers of traditional materials who might become part of the VAR network.

Working with European partners to encourage retention and development of traditional skills both in the UK and other parts of Europe

VAR's main area of operation is within the North of England, but an important aspect of the work will also be to exchange knowledge with other areas of Europe which use similar materials and techniques.

We are currently working towards a transnational project (EU Culture 2007) involving partners in Germany - clay buildings (relevant to the Solway clay dabbins), and Bulgaria - stone roofs (relevant to stone roofs of the North Pennines) with other partners yet to be established.

MORE INFORMATION

Anglo-Romanian Lime-Burning. Click Here to download the pdf and read about the exciting Anglo-Romanian Lime Burning project. File size 2.5mb.