Another website is after your money to be listed on its directory. The site, www.historicbuilding.co.uk, was set up by RICS surveyor Robert Hill. It promotes his services, although it does it rather better than all those sites that say little more than ‘here we are’. And it might possibly be more useful as a place for stone conservation companies to be listed than many general online directories.

Operating as the Historic Building Advisory Service (HBAS), the site contains news and information about events, including seminars on various aspects of conservation. It is an expansion of Robert’s business into web publishing, although at the heart of it are his services as a surveyor.

It has to be more than just a ‘here we are’ website because owners of historic properties are invited to subscribe to it at an annual rate of £55, which will give them access to two free enquiries about issues relating to the maintenance of their property and some discounts on some of Robert’s other services.

The latest move on the site is to add the register of the specialist craftspeople and companies whose skills are required to carry out repair, maintenance and conservation work on historic buildings.

Everyone knows how difficult it can be to find reliable people with the necessary skills to work on a property and many people are willing to pay a bit extra to someone who is recommended for the additional peace of mind it can give them.

In order to be registered on the website you will have to provide a bit of substantiating evidence about your financial stability and technical ability, including some references, some of which must be from a professional or company you have worked for. You are told they will be followed up and that comments will be included in the directory.

The register is not up and running yet and clicking in the required place to enter an enquiry for information from the database only produces a form inviting you to register. It warns of a ‘non-returnable processing fee’ although does not say what that is. When you fill in a form you are told you will be emailed more information about registering. I filled in the form but am still waiting, although when I contacted HBAS I was told the price is £385 for a two-year listing.

You will not be able to view the database on line but will enter a query to which you will be emailed a list of names from it. Anyone will be able to enquire, although subscribers will get more information than non-subscribers – such as the results of responses to references.

Others have tried to establish databases such as this, often without success because companies are not always keen to pay to be on them. Unless they achieve a critical mass they have little to offer.

This one could be more successful. It is not a bad website to be associated with. It is wordy, which, like most documents that are wordy, makes it hard to pick out what it is actually saying in places, and some of the information is not going to add much to your knowledge. The site is not yet complete, either, with some links leading to empty pages. Search engine optimisation is impressive, bringing the site up in second position on Google sandwiched between the IHBC and English Heritage with the query ‘historic building’. It also has a sponsored link.

The directory will clearly add an important element to this site if it can get off the ground. At the moment I give it Rating: 77%.