The National Trust Heritage and Rural Skills Centre

How do you maintain and repair your old house when there are not enough people with the skills to do it? The National Trust has opened a Heritage and Rural Skills Centre in the South Cotswolds to train up a new generation of craftspeople
 

If you love the Cotswolds, you’ll have an appreciation of the rich built history of the place. The beautiful golden-stone villages and the great historic houses nestling in the wolds are what makes the place so special. You may be concerned then to learn that these historic buildings and interiors are under threat. Not from a singular force you can name, but simply because the heritage skills needed to maintain and repair them are being lost.

It’s something National Trust general manager Christian Walker experienced first-hand at Buscot and Coleshill estates in West Oxfordshire.

Carpenters Canteen Cafe and secondhand bookshop, Coleshill Estate, Oxfordshire. (c) NTI James Dobson

‘We embarked on a conservation project at Buscot Park,’ he explains. ‘In order to repair the roof, we had to import leadworkers from Europe. It demonstrated to us that we lack specialist conservation skills in this country, and that it’s putting our heritage at risk.’

With around 25% of houses built before the First World War and more than 5,000 buildings on Historic England’s ‘at risk’ register, it’s a significant issue. Particularly in an area like the Cotswolds, which still has much of its traditional building stock. The realisation gave Christian an idea that could solve a problem on the estates he looks after and provide a wider benefit, too.

On Buscot and Coleshill estates, there are 1,200 buildings which need a regular supply of tradespeople who can thatch a roof, repair a wall with lime plaster, and work iron into gates and railings. Christian’s vision was to create a community of craftspeople to safeguard the vital traditional building techniques and rural crafts that are in decline so that they can thrive and be passed on.

Lime plastering workshop at the Heritage Skills Centre, Buscot and Coleshill Estate, Oxfordshire. (c) NTI James Dobson

The Heritage and Rural Skills Centre officially opened last month. It’s a hub of craftspeople working in individual workshops sensitively converted from buildings on the model farm, combined with teaching resources. There’s also a busy programme of courses for professionals, beginners and hobbyists wanting to learn skills, such as lime plastering, stained-glass making and basket weaving. There are lecture spaces, rooms to hire, permanent exhibitions to visit, a café and a second-hand bookshop.

For Christian, creating the Skills Centre was a satisfying way to continue the rich history of creativity, innovation and learning on the estate. Before it was destroyed by fire in the 1950s, the Inigo Jones-style mansion which once stood on the site was said to be one of the finest examples of 17th-century architecture in the country. It was home to potter Katherine Pleydell-Bourverie (1895-1985) who went on to become a pioneer in modern English studio pottery.

The model farm, which now houses the Heritage and Rural Skills Centre, was at the cutting edge of agriculture in in the mid-1800s when it was built. Visitors came from neighbouring estates and counties to learn about building design and best farm practice. Later, Coleshill continued to facilitate innovation and design excellence, with Michael Wickham and Terence Conran working in the Stable Courtyard in the early 1960s. It’s here they developed a template for the furniture design store, Habitat. ‘As custodians, we have a responsibility to revive, conserve and grow Buscot and Coleshill estates’ heritage,’ says Christian.

Salvaged items from Coleshill House after the fire in the 1950s, Coleshill Estate, Oxfordshire. (c) NTI James Dobson

Alongside the course programme at the Heritage and Rural Skills Centre, there’s a blacksmithing forge, and an award-winning wood and stone carver, along with a carpenter, weaver and the Community Shed. This is a charitable association which helps to reduce loneliness and isolation through making and mending.

Christian also has plans to forge partnerships with universities and technical colleges to provide training and qualifications and facilitate apprenticeships in traditional building skills. All this means that, hopefully, our beautiful Cotswold villages will be well looked after for centuries to come.

The day I went on a lime plastering course at the Heritage and Rural Skills Centre in Coleshill…

It’s like black magic. A scoop of quicklime into water and in seconds the mixture is boiling in its bucket. We’re all leaning in like Macbeth’s witches round the cauldron to take a look. We’re goggled and masked as per the safety briefing, but you can still see eyes widening then narrowing in grins of delight.

We’re gathered for a traditional lime plastering course at the new Heritage Skills Centre at Coleshill in West Oxfordshire. It’s run by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) in partnership with the National Trust. There are around 15 of us on the course, with three tutors and the course leader.

We introduce ourselves and say why we’re here, and I’m surprised at the diversity of reasons for coming. There are owners of old houses who want to DIY their own repairs along with experienced builders and plasterers. ‘When I was young, I was happy to “bash out” new houses,’ says construction worker Jon, who’s here with his apprentice daughter. ‘But now I want to do something with a bit more craft and job satisfaction.’

Jane has bought an old house and wants to be able to interact with her builders from a position of knowledge. Her presence on the course is rewarded almost immediately when she explains how her plasterer has recommended stripping out the existing chestnut laths and replacing with stainless steel. The looks on the faces of the course tutors tell Jane everything she needs to know, even before they explain how the originals can easily be repaired.

One of the course tutors, Sean Wheatley, tells me how his experience on a course like this was ‘life-changing’. Before, he was skimming flat gypsum on new-builds. After, he was travelling the country recreating historic features and winning awards. I just leave with a useful working knowledge of lime-plastering and an agapanthus leaf tile I cast myself and I’m happy with that.

There’s a strong programme of courses on offer at the Heritage and Rural Skills Centre in 2023, including lime plastering, ornamental lime plastering, blacksmithing, stone and wood-carving, stained-glass making and weaving. In addition to the day and multi-day courses, there are evening and half-day courses for those wanting to ‘have a go’.

Have a look at the courses you can try at bit.ly/3KGxjES

Heritage skills at risk

According to the Heritage Crafts Association, there are several traditional building skills at risk from a lack of training and apprenticeships:

Thatching – Distinctive and picturesque, thatched roofs in a village create a sense of place. A thatcher carefully packs straw or reeds in layers to provide insulation and shed water away from the inner roof.

Joinery – Joiners are specialist craftspeople who work predominantly in wood. They create (join together) the object in the workshop, which a carpenter then fits on site.

Blacksmithing – A blacksmith creates objects from wrought iron or steel such as railings, gates or furniture. They shape and join the metal by heating it in a forge until it is soft and workable.

Pargeting – Pargeters create ornamental plasterwork or rendering on building facades. It could be anything from a simple latticework to a sculptural relief of flowers, fruit or animals.

Flintworking – In certain parts of the country where the geology is favourable, flint was traditionally used as a building material. The flint has to be ‘knapped’ (broken and chipped into workable pieces) before mortaring onto a wall.

Stonemasonry – One of the earliest known trades, stonemasons shape rough pieces of rock into accurate shapes which can then be arranged to form structures such as archways or sculptures and statues.

Leadworking – Lead was used on country houses and churches on roofs, flashings and decorative plumbing. Lead can be easily melted, cast, jointed and decorated but requires specific and specialised skills.

Heritage building crafts facts:

• There are more than 50 crafts on the Heritage Crafts Association’s Red List, meaning they are critically endangered.
• There are 5,000 buildings on the English Heritage at Risk register.
• 25% of our building stock (6.2 million properties) is pre-First World War, requiring traditional building techniques to maintain them.
• Almost a third of commercial properties (around 600,000) are also historical sites.
• More than 105,000 new workers will be needed to work solely on revamping the UK’s historical buildings to meet the UK’s 2050 net zero target.
• Adapting historical buildings requires specialist skills and training to ensure heritage characteristics are protected.

Katy Dunn has an editorial background in architecture and design magazines and now works for the National Trust, telling the stories of our places in Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.