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34
BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON
HISTORIC CHURCHES
22
ND ANNUAL EDITION
FORTHE RECORD
Documenting church conservation and repair work
Peter Aiers
F
EWORGANISATIONS will be as
acutely aware of the importance of
good record-keeping as the Churches
Conservation Trust (CCT), which
has been caring for historic Anglican
churches since 1969. During that time it
has amassed a collection of 349 churches
throughout England, each with hundreds
of documents, many relating to its history
and fabric. Furthermore, the CCT acquires
one or two more churches every year,
which it repairs, conserves and opens
to the public. It is vital that all decisions
affecting the future of these buildings are
properly informed, and the ability to access
clear, detailed records about a church’s
past and any works carried out to it would
be a tremendous asset in this process.
However, records come in many forms and
the information they contain is not always
consistent, obvious and systematic.
Churches close for a number of
reasons, but usually there is a significant
repair need that the parish is unable
to cope with. This failure to deal with
building repairs by the parish sets a
context for the information and records
that are inherited by the CCT. Every
Church of England parish church is
the responsibility of the parish, via
the PCC. There is no central body in
the C of E which is responsible for
the repair of the church buildings
and so it falls to volunteers up and
down the country to deliver.
These volunteers are made up of the
worshipping congregations and sometimes
the wider community who love their
churches. Although these volunteers are
committed, they come from a wide variety
of backgrounds and rarely have expertise in
historic building conservation. This results
in a wide variation in the type and quality
of records kept. The volunteers who look
after historic churches have an overriding
purpose which should take precedence
over the care of the historic church – the
‘mission’ of the church. The combination
of complex historic building issues,
conflicting priorities and a volunteer-run
set-up often results in problems with either
the updating of records or the practicalities
of how they are stored and accessed.
Records sometimes exist purely in
individual memory and are never written
down, either on paper or electronically.
It is important to try to capture this
knowledge, whether its source is a local
volunteer or a consultant architect.
Once the process of transferring the
church to the CCT is under way, the trust
undertakes a full assessment of the church
building, using whatever information
can be amassed. This ‘vesting’ report is
the baseline of the CCT record of what is
known about the building fabric. Some
supporting reports are supplied by the
Statutory Advisory Committee on Closed
and Closing Churches, a committee of
the Church Buildings Council which
provides independent advice on heritage
matters relating to redundant churches.
These reports include analysis of the
historic value of the church and try to pull
together some of the known sources.
Regardless of the quality of the paper
trail, there is no substitute for getting
inside the building and seeing what is
going on. The condition of the rafter feet,
drainage, stonework and roof coverings
are investigated. This survey work can
be quite invasive as it entails opening up
those hidden dark places where the rot
and the beetles hide.
Once the urgent needs of the building
are fully understood, the repair process
begins as soon as possible and this is
where the CCT record-keeping starts.
All professional reports and records
of work undertaken are retained, so
the trust has amassed a vast archive
over the past 40 years. Storage of the
paperwork comes at a cost and there
are the attendant problems of curating
it. The obvious approach would be to
keep everything but this is impractical
and unaffordable so any non-essential
paperwork must be weeded out.
Inevitably, this approach is not
infallible and human error sometimes
results in the loss of useful information or
in useless material being saved. Recalling
information is also complex as although
the paper files are catalogued by church,
they are stored off-site and there is no
index for individual folders. CCT staff
St Mary’s Church, Akenham, Suffolk: one of around 350 redundant churches now in the care of The Churches
Conservation Trust. Each church acquired by the trust comes with hundreds of historic documents, many of
which relate to maintenance, repair and past alterations. (All photos: The Churches Conservation Trust)