Puncturing the myths around historic buildings
A new service could help farmers and landowners relieve the headache of dealing with historic buildings and structures.
The Historic Buildings Advisory Service is an online consultancy providing advice to farmers and landowners on how to puncture some of the myths surrounding historic structures, and help them turn buildings from being a cash drain into a potentially lucrative asset.
Chartered surveyor Robert Hill said the new online service would seek to answer the three most common questions he received from farmers and landowners. “Most often I am asked what can be done with an historic structure, who would be qualified to carry out the work, and how can such projects be funded. These questions reflect the perceived problems many people associate with historic buildings or landscapes.”
What qualified as an historic building might surprise many people. “Historic buildings include many structures that will be familiar to people, like anything from an old barn to a dovecote or an ancient farmhouse. But it could include agricultural structures to as recently as 1945. Until then, when the character of built structures changed in this country with the introduction of different materials and pre-fabricated buildings, builders continued to use traditional materials and techniques.”
The obligations surrounding historic buildings went beyond the built environment, he said. “The service is also able to advise on things like a deserted medieval village, or relics of Iron Age field systems.”
The HBAS was less about specific design consultancy and more aimed at giving farmers and landowners independent advice, Mr Hill said. If you’re looking to find out what you need to do to maintain an historic structure, or even how you might be able to redevelop one, the first thing is to look at local planning policy and determine how you could make a project fit within its constraints.
“It’s also important to handle any conversion well – you have to work with the building rather than try and make it suit your aims. And it’s always worth making contact with and talking carefully to the district conservation officer to see what they are likely to accept.”
Restoration of historic structures for new use required attention to detail. “To maintain the character of the building you’d have to look at appropriate materials like local stone or brick, or traditional lime mortars,” said Mr Hill.
An annual online subscription to the Historic Building Advice Service costs £55 and subscribers will get two specific questions of their choice answered for free. Consultancy fees thereafter are dependant on the nature of the work involved.
“A lot of farmers don’t realise how much of the historic landscape they may have on their land.”