Not all the projects in this year’s Angel Awards included stonework, but its pre-eminent role in conservation was evident as English Heritage once again paid tribute to those who are saving the country’s built heritage.
English Heritage started its Angel Awards three years ago as a way of recognising the efforts of volunteers to protect the built heritage of the nation. But the Awards have also become a showcase for the skills of the specialist contractors employed on the projects. And given that so many historic buildings were constructed in natural stone, that inevitably means the Angel Awards feature the skills of various stone companies.
This year, the specialist contractors involved included such well known names from the stone sector as Cliveden Conservation Workshop, PAYE Stonework & Restoration and William Anelay.
The third annual Angel Awards were presented last month (21 October) once again in conjunction with the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation at London’s top West End Palace Theatre (currently showing Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments).
Not all the contractors employed by the groups that raise the money and organise the rescues of the structures and sites in the Awards get a mention, but it would be particularly incongruous not to include them in the Craftsmanship category, one of four categories in which Awards are presented. The other three categories recognise the rescues of industrial sites, heritage sites in general and places of worship.
There is also an Award presented to one of any of the short-listed projects that gets most votes from readers of the Telegraph newspaper, the media partner of the Awards, and members of English Heritage. This year they chose the Hadlow Tower project near Tonbridge in Kent, where PAYE Stonework & Restoration carried out the repairs. The Tower was entered in the Best Craftsmanship Award, which it also won. Most of the work involved Roman Cement on brick.
The Awards were hosted this year by Paul Martin, who presents Flog It on television, and among those announcing the winners was Lord Webber, who opened the envelope to reveal the choice of the Telegraph readers and English Heritage members.
There are usually four finalists in each of the four categories, but there was an extra finalist in the Heritage Site category this time because there were so many top quality entries.
Apart from Hadlow Tower, with the Award going to the Vivat Trust / Save Hadlow Tower Action Group, the winners were:
- Malcolm and James Nattrass for Low Slit Mine, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham (Best Rescue of an Industrial Building)
- Ivy House Community Pub Ltd for the Ivy House Public House, Southwark, London (Best Rescue of Any Heritage Building or Site)
- St James’s Restoration Fund and Parochial Church Council for the Church of St James the Greater, Ab Kettleby, Leicestershire (Best Rescue of a Place of Worship).
The term ‘rescue’ is used because the Angel Awards recognise projects that have removed, of rescued, heritage sites from the English Heritage ‘At Risk’ register.
The Awards were started in the face of Government cuts as a way of encouraging more volunteers to get involved in protecting the nation’s built heritage… a move that is continuing now through the mobilisation of volunteers to survey Grade II listed buildings (see the previous issue of NSS).
You can see a video of the Awards at bit.ly/1hRYlIj
You can read more about the awards and see videos of the short-listed projects on the English Heritage website: bit.ly/1jgtEbd