Sorry for the long wait for this latest in the series guys, things have been hectic at Casa del Marco!
A lot of people have asked me (and I've told a lot of people who probably didn't care) about using twitter for work. For me, twitter is a great way of making acquaintances, formal or informal; and keeping up with the wider world, especially if you're working from home, or even on the internet out of work hours. For work, its a useful research tool, and very handy for getting a personal line to celebs and important people when an email would get overlooked.
Now admittedly, I'm verging on the definition of 'techno-nerd', but twitter really is very easy to use - if you've managed to find your way on to a blog you'll have no issues.
If you're a Leicester student, its definitely worth talking to Emma and Terese (@lamilonguera and @tbirdcymru) who put on brilliant workshops involving technology and research at the university library (@UoLDWL).
One of the great aspects of twitter is that once you've decided how you want to use it, can be developed and added to, to suit your personal style.
To take the New History Lab as an example, there's a big pink box right there ---> that links the blog to the twitter feed. The NHL has also set up an automatic service so that our twitter account sends a tweet every time the blog is updated.
If you'd rather an example from the CCT website, there will very soon be a lovely big link at the bottom that links the website to the CEO's tweets.
In my own personal use, Mozilla Firefox makes it very easy to add applications like 'echofon' to your browser window so that you can get updates without opening a new webpage. More visual programmes like 'twitterfall' and 'tweetdeck' are also good ways of presenting twitter info in easy-to-process formats.
Some people like to have one formal twitter account and one informal - so that you can rhapsodise about how beautiful Jack is in 'Pillars of the Earth' without getting in the way of saying clever things about heritage documents ... I've decided not to...
My favourite Conservation, Heritage and Buildings tweeters (including individuals and institutions) are:
@NemesisRepublic, @NerysW, @Heritage_NGOs, @cbalondon, @TheVivatTrust, @thevicsoc, @AliceKershaw, @hugoinggone, @HeritageAction, @Pastpreservers, @BrookingTrust, @SnobsKnobs, @MaryRose500, the magnificent @Amanda_Vickery, @DrFrond, @HeritageColl, @HeritageBritain, @heritagelottery, @JonathanFoyle of climbing great buildings fame, @lucyinglis, @bletchleypark, @doorsopendays, @SPAB1877, @Kevin_McCloud (<3), href="http://twitter.com/#%21/tomdyckhoff">@TomDyckhoff, @GEFFRYE, @IHBCtweet, my future wife @sarahbeeny, @EHArchaeology, @conservengineer, @CHRuins (Our very own Miriam), @HouseHistorian, @Projectbook who said nice things about my last 'Our Man at the CCT' post :D, @HornimanMuseum, @Wallstroker, @RuthWatsonTV, and our sibling bloggers @Attic_MS from Museum Studies, Leicester.
We are @NewHistoryLab, and I'm @thelostmark* :)
Now, who's for a snowball fight?
*(Now I'm @thehistoryb0y) :)
Showing posts with label Churches Conservation Trust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Churches Conservation Trust. Show all posts
Saturday, 18 December 2010
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Our Man at the CCT: Issues and Principles (3)
Howdy-doody Labarinos,
I was having a think, and decided that this next post in the series should be about some of the issues and principles of conservation that I've come across from working for a month at The Churches Conservation Trust, a historic buildings conservation charity.
For clarity's sake, I should probably get some definitions down before we get much further, because this stuff can get tricky!
Conservation - a profession devoted to the preservation of cultural heritage for the future. Conservation activities include examination, documentation, treatment, and preventive care. All of this work is supported by research and education. (This can include altering the use of the space to retain the historic fabric).
Preservation - a professional endeavour that seeks to preserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artefacts of historic significance. (The idea of preserving a historic space ‘in aspic’ is contested as to how virtuous it is – a space which is not allowed to develop and mutate to suit the people who use it is not functioning to the best of its ability).
Restoration - the process of the renewal and refurbishment of the fabric of a building. Restoration can include building cleaning, building repair, and rebuilding. (Anyone who follows my personal twitter and witnessed me swearing at the episode of ‘Grand Designs’ in which the subject ‘restored’ a building that was built in the 15th Century building by ripping out 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Century fabric will be well aware that I believe this style of restoration to be the anti-christ).
Regeneration - Regenerating buildings can reinforce a sense of community, make an important contribution to the local economy and act as a catalyst for improvements to the wider area. [Historic spaces] should not be retained as artefacts, relics of a bygone age. New uses should be allowed in the buildings and sensitive adaptations facilitated, when the original use of a historic building is no longer relevant or viable. (This makes me happy and is good and woo!)
In my opinion, a combination of conservation and regeneration is the best way to do it as you end up with a project that has saved and protected the historic fabric of a space or place, without compromising how useful this space can be. (This is a fairly major part of the work at the CCT, as closed church buildings in urban centres find that they have to find new uses so as to avoid dereliction, and be able to afford rents and maintenance in the expensive urban landscape).
The Churches Conservation Trust create their Assessments of Significance (I've been helping to write them!), using a series of principles that are based on English Heritage's "Conservation Principles" (which you can download). The very basic jist of them is that old things are significant, old and unique things are of high significance, and old, unique, pretty, and communally important things are untouchable.
One of the issues that I haven't fully resolved myself is with my mother ... no wait, wrong blog. One of the *conservation* issues that I haven't worked out properly is the idea that the older something is, the more significant that makes it. Or rather, the more recently that something was built, the less significant it is - why should it be a good result to knock a doorway through a nineteenth century vestry, rather than an Anglo-Saxon aisle wall? I understand there's an element of relative significance to be considered, and that the general rule with the archaeological record is that the older something is, the more rare it is, and therefore the higher significance, but having said this, I'm still not entirely comfortable with saying 'yeah, its only nineteenth century, go and get the sledgehammer'...
This issue can be expanded past church buildings to urban conservation in general. Conservation bigwigs are currently debating whether we should conserve bad quality, post-war 1950s housing for the sake of conserving it, or should we mow it all down and build 21st century housing in its place. Post-war housing is not seen as significant because there is suburb upon suburb of the stuff, its not particularly aesthetically significant (unless you like asbestos), and it was only built 60 years ago, so it hasn't entered the significant realms of 'historic fabric' yet.
That 'yet' is damn important, this same argument was made about Victorian industrial buildings and factories (like this beauty in Worcester) a century ago, and people started pulling them down to make way for corregated iron-covered replacements, lucky us...
So in 50 years time, will an intern be writing a hover-blog, powered by anti-matter and vegetable oil, on how those idiot early-21st centuryers pulled down swathes of beautiful 1950s housing, and even worse, built toilets in astoundingly significant nineteenth century church vestries?
I'd love to hear your views on this! Thanks,
Your friendly neighbourhood Mark
I was having a think, and decided that this next post in the series should be about some of the issues and principles of conservation that I've come across from working for a month at The Churches Conservation Trust, a historic buildings conservation charity.
For clarity's sake, I should probably get some definitions down before we get much further, because this stuff can get tricky!
Conservation - a profession devoted to the preservation of cultural heritage for the future. Conservation activities include examination, documentation, treatment, and preventive care. All of this work is supported by research and education. (This can include altering the use of the space to retain the historic fabric).
Preservation - a professional endeavour that seeks to preserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artefacts of historic significance. (The idea of preserving a historic space ‘in aspic’ is contested as to how virtuous it is – a space which is not allowed to develop and mutate to suit the people who use it is not functioning to the best of its ability).
Restoration - the process of the renewal and refurbishment of the fabric of a building. Restoration can include building cleaning, building repair, and rebuilding. (Anyone who follows my personal twitter and witnessed me swearing at the episode of ‘Grand Designs’ in which the subject ‘restored’ a building that was built in the 15th Century building by ripping out 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Century fabric will be well aware that I believe this style of restoration to be the anti-christ).
Regeneration - Regenerating buildings can reinforce a sense of community, make an important contribution to the local economy and act as a catalyst for improvements to the wider area. [Historic spaces] should not be retained as artefacts, relics of a bygone age. New uses should be allowed in the buildings and sensitive adaptations facilitated, when the original use of a historic building is no longer relevant or viable. (This makes me happy and is good and woo!)
In my opinion, a combination of conservation and regeneration is the best way to do it as you end up with a project that has saved and protected the historic fabric of a space or place, without compromising how useful this space can be. (This is a fairly major part of the work at the CCT, as closed church buildings in urban centres find that they have to find new uses so as to avoid dereliction, and be able to afford rents and maintenance in the expensive urban landscape).
The Churches Conservation Trust create their Assessments of Significance (I've been helping to write them!), using a series of principles that are based on English Heritage's "Conservation Principles" (which you can download). The very basic jist of them is that old things are significant, old and unique things are of high significance, and old, unique, pretty, and communally important things are untouchable.
One of the issues that I haven't fully resolved myself is with my mother ... no wait, wrong blog. One of the *conservation* issues that I haven't worked out properly is the idea that the older something is, the more significant that makes it. Or rather, the more recently that something was built, the less significant it is - why should it be a good result to knock a doorway through a nineteenth century vestry, rather than an Anglo-Saxon aisle wall? I understand there's an element of relative significance to be considered, and that the general rule with the archaeological record is that the older something is, the more rare it is, and therefore the higher significance, but having said this, I'm still not entirely comfortable with saying 'yeah, its only nineteenth century, go and get the sledgehammer'...
This issue can be expanded past church buildings to urban conservation in general. Conservation bigwigs are currently debating whether we should conserve bad quality, post-war 1950s housing for the sake of conserving it, or should we mow it all down and build 21st century housing in its place. Post-war housing is not seen as significant because there is suburb upon suburb of the stuff, its not particularly aesthetically significant (unless you like asbestos), and it was only built 60 years ago, so it hasn't entered the significant realms of 'historic fabric' yet.
That 'yet' is damn important, this same argument was made about Victorian industrial buildings and factories (like this beauty in Worcester) a century ago, and people started pulling them down to make way for corregated iron-covered replacements, lucky us...
So in 50 years time, will an intern be writing a hover-blog, powered by anti-matter and vegetable oil, on how those idiot early-21st centuryers pulled down swathes of beautiful 1950s housing, and even worse, built toilets in astoundingly significant nineteenth century church vestries?
I'd love to hear your views on this! Thanks,
Your friendly neighbourhood Mark
Definitions: Conservation, Preservation and Restoration - Wikipedia.org (that’s right, I dared); Regeneration – ‘The Role of Historic Buildings in Urban Regeneration’, House of Commons
Saturday, 13 November 2010
Our Man at the CCT: Networking (2)
So I've been working for the Churches Conservation Trust for 3 weeks now, and I've already travelled far and wide (well, Bristol and Boston), met many people from the humblest retired volunteer parish committee member to a room full of advocates of national and international societies like Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, Institute of Historic Buildings Conservation, the Victorian Society, and the Regional Teams of the CCT (which all have pretty logos:
This is very very good - not least because it provides a welcome change to only interacting with my flatmates and the library checking-out machine during the long, cold, summer months of dissertation-writing social wasteland. Its also good because its exactly why I'm here - to get as full and rounded experience of the heritage and conservation industries as possible whilst contributing for free, so that I become an attractive asset to any or all of them when it comes to looking for paid work.
One of the very first lessons I was given upon starting this internship was 'never turn down an invite to the pub'. This is because business doesn't just stop at the office door. Even in the Third Sector, important networks can be made and reinforced through what I'm reliably informed is called 'face time', and any one of those alcohol-fuelled rants about 'Grand Designs' or 'Country House Rescue' could turn into an interview, or at least prick up a few ears.
The next lesson for me was that you should always be polite to people (and about people). This was reiterated during a car journey to Boston (the cabbagey one, not the one founded in 1630 by Puritans) when my shadowee pointed out just how often she interacts with previous employers and colleagues at meetings, conferences, training days and site visits. Everybody smile, shake hands and speak clearly.
(Images from CCT SPAB, IHBC, and Victorian Society)
This is very very good - not least because it provides a welcome change to only interacting with my flatmates and the library checking-out machine during the long, cold, summer months of dissertation-writing social wasteland. Its also good because its exactly why I'm here - to get as full and rounded experience of the heritage and conservation industries as possible whilst contributing for free, so that I become an attractive asset to any or all of them when it comes to looking for paid work.One of the very first lessons I was given upon starting this internship was 'never turn down an invite to the pub'. This is because business doesn't just stop at the office door. Even in the Third Sector, important networks can be made and reinforced through what I'm reliably informed is called 'face time', and any one of those alcohol-fuelled rants about 'Grand Designs' or 'Country House Rescue' could turn into an interview, or at least prick up a few ears.
The next lesson for me was that you should always be polite to people (and about people). This was reiterated during a car journey to Boston (the cabbagey one, not the one founded in 1630 by Puritans) when my shadowee pointed out just how often she interacts with previous employers and colleagues at meetings, conferences, training days and site visits. Everybody smile, shake hands and speak clearly.
(Images from CCT SPAB, IHBC, and Victorian Society)
Friday, 5 November 2010
Our Man at the CCT: An Introduction (1)
Hello Labbers, Lab affiliates, Lab coats and Labradors,
My name's Mark, I used to be a masters student at Leicester and a full-time New History Lab groupie. Now I'm working as an intern in London and around the country with the Churches Conservation Trust and still clinging to my studenty past for dear life.
My posts this year will hopefully turn into a little series covering topics like the world of work in an office with a team rather than on a thesis by yourself, and visiting sites rather than visiting journal archives, the skills that can be transfered from studentdom to a 9-5 job, as well as the skills that studentdom definitely didn't prepare me for, the trials and tribulations as well as the fun and excitement of commuting to central London, and [hopefully] how to survive for a year in London without being paid for my work!
I should probably point out now that this will be an organic series as I only have a vague idea what the next year really has in store for me, but the idea is that it'll come in useful for students who're planning on following a similar path, giving them some clues as to what they might experience (or so they can work out how they could improve on my trailblazing example).
So, introductions:
The Churches Conservation Trust (CCT): The CCT was established in 1969 so that redundant churches (those that are no longer being used as places of worship), which have significant historical, aesthetic, archaeological, or community-centred aspects were maintained, conserved and made useful.
(go on, click it)
The Regeneration Taskforce, where I work, is the newest part of the Trust, which is specifically angled towards making redundant churches into ongoing concerns that make money for maintaining the church, as well as complementing the community surrounding the church. Some exciting and visual examples are:
St Paul's Church, Bristol
Was a grade 1 gothic church, now a circus school. AWESOME. Before the 7 year conservation scheme, the church had stood derelict and vandalised for 15 years. Since it opened its had c.14,000 visitors per year and keeps winning awards!
All Souls, Bolton
All Souls is a current project for the Regeneration Taskforce, its new use as a multi-functional community space will use the 'pods on stilts' method of creating buildings within the building, protecting as much of the historic fabric as possible. ALSO AWESOME. It has a strong focus on community involvement, as examplified through this page.
So, there's a little introduction to me and my new job, watch this space for updates, revelations, musings and hopefully a little bit of advice.
Ciao historistas!
(source for info and images: http://www.visitchurches.org.uk/)
My name's Mark, I used to be a masters student at Leicester and a full-time New History Lab groupie. Now I'm working as an intern in London and around the country with the Churches Conservation Trust and still clinging to my studenty past for dear life.
My posts this year will hopefully turn into a little series covering topics like the world of work in an office with a team rather than on a thesis by yourself, and visiting sites rather than visiting journal archives, the skills that can be transfered from studentdom to a 9-5 job, as well as the skills that studentdom definitely didn't prepare me for, the trials and tribulations as well as the fun and excitement of commuting to central London, and [hopefully] how to survive for a year in London without being paid for my work!
I should probably point out now that this will be an organic series as I only have a vague idea what the next year really has in store for me, but the idea is that it'll come in useful for students who're planning on following a similar path, giving them some clues as to what they might experience (or so they can work out how they could improve on my trailblazing example).
So, introductions:
The Churches Conservation Trust (CCT): The CCT was established in 1969 so that redundant churches (those that are no longer being used as places of worship), which have significant historical, aesthetic, archaeological, or community-centred aspects were maintained, conserved and made useful.
(go on, click it)The Regeneration Taskforce, where I work, is the newest part of the Trust, which is specifically angled towards making redundant churches into ongoing concerns that make money for maintaining the church, as well as complementing the community surrounding the church. Some exciting and visual examples are:
St Paul's Church, Bristol
Was a grade 1 gothic church, now a circus school. AWESOME. Before the 7 year conservation scheme, the church had stood derelict and vandalised for 15 years. Since it opened its had c.14,000 visitors per year and keeps winning awards!All Souls, Bolton
All Souls is a current project for the Regeneration Taskforce, its new use as a multi-functional community space will use the 'pods on stilts' method of creating buildings within the building, protecting as much of the historic fabric as possible. ALSO AWESOME. It has a strong focus on community involvement, as examplified through this page.
So, there's a little introduction to me and my new job, watch this space for updates, revelations, musings and hopefully a little bit of advice.
Ciao historistas!
(source for info and images: http://www.visitchurches.org.uk/)
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