Historical buildings: Threatened by skills shortage

Historical buildings in Wales are threatened by a shortage of workers with the skills to repair and maintain them, a heritage officer has said.

About a third of all buildings in Wales were built before 1919, many of those made of stone.

Many could be lost through "ignorance and a lack of skills", said Carmarthenshire council's Nell Hellier.

The Welsh government said it was working with partners to try and address the issue.

"We have half a million traditional buildings in Wales," said Ms Hellier, Carmarthenshire's senior built heritage officer.

"We need traditional building skills to repair them."

She works at the Tywi Centre, on the Dinefwr estate near Llandeilo, one of the only schools in the UK offering specialist training and advice on skills essential for maintaining historic buildings.

"We're not just talking about our cathedrals and big, smart architecture, we're also talking about terraced houses and farmsteads across the country," she said.

"Skills as well as materials are needed for all these buildings."

When old buildings are maintained and repaired appropriately, Ms Hellier said they added cultural, economical and environmental value.

"If you are trapping water in walls of buildings through using a plastic paint or cement materials, then timbers will rot and essentially your building will collapse," she said.

"Half a million homes with damp walls [use] a lot more energy to heat those buildings," she added.

"Rendering in lime would make a real difference."

In Powys, a three-year, multi-million pound project to do essential roof repairs on Brecon's 1,000-year-old cathedral has proven to be challenging.

Stone to replace roof tiles has been found in a local quarry, but it has been difficult to find craftspeople to do the job.

Tom Jones is a steeplejack and director of the old buildings conservation specialist firm, Jones and Fraser.

"The knowledge of what processes to use and what materials are most appropriate is really important when renovating heritage buildings," he said.

Building skills needed to be protected alongside buildings, said Stephen Oliver, a cathedral architect.

"Sourcing the skills is one of the big challenges," he explained.

"There are loads and loads of historic buildings and if there aren't enough people to repair them, they will fall in to disrepair and our heritage will be lost over a period of time."

Ms Hellier said there had been encouraging developments, including "a brief introduction to understanding heritage buildings" was included on the new Welsh construction curriculum.

But she said "it isn't nearly enough".

Despite Wales having thousands of stone buildings, "there isn't a single college in Wales teaching stonemasonry. We have an enormous amount to do".

"Let's not lose our heritage buildings simply through ignorance and a lack of skills," she added.

"The costs to our environment, our economy and our culture are just too great".

The Welsh government said its historic environment service Cadw had been working with partners across the home nations to address the issue.

It is also working with Qualifications Wales to development new qualifications that will raise the profile of traditional building skills.