EDITORIAL
VIEW FROM THE CHAIR
View from the Chair
T
Emma Griffiths
National Chairman, AHSS
4I
he view from the Chair is
looking particularly sunny, as I
write on this fine August day.
The Society has been based in
many locations over the years,
our last home was the Glasite Meeting
House, and is currently Riddle’s Court,
where we are tenants of Scottish Historic
Buildings Trust (SHBT). It has been an
excellent base on Edinburgh’s bustling Royal
Mile, in a building with a rich history
stretching back to 1587. It has been
fascinating to observe closely the process of
securing the future of the building: glimpses
at first hand of the extraordinary efforts to
secure funding, permissions, and clear
legislative and administrative hurdles while
outlining a robust, sustainable future for a
building seen by many as in the “far too
difficult” category.
However, the great news is that SHBT
have pulled it off, found a way to
demonstrate viability, discretely insert 21st
century services, and importantly secured
almost all of the required funding. While
delighting in this success of our landlords,
and for this important historic building, we
were faced again with finding a new home.
We have an exciting plan for a new home
with some illustrious neighbours, which we
will officially announce in the next few
months. Until then, rest assured that
communication by email, post and
telephone will carry on as normal.
A second reason for great cheer is that
while we have almost definitely been
overloading our part-time administrator
(and unsung hero) Bridget Mason, at last, we
have managed to secure a fantastic
additional staff member. Sarah Pearce, who
has worked on an ad hoc, part-time basis
for the Society, took up full time
employment in August 2014. Sarah has
been assisting with our social media
presence, representing the Society at events,
and will expand this development and
support role, bringing to it her qualifications
in and enthusiasm for heritage, strong
administrative skills and charming
interpersonal skills.
The Society’s National Conservation
Committee has been extremely active in
the last six months, with comments on really
critical changes in policy and the structural
delivery of conservation and heritage issues.
The Society submitted measured comments
expressing concern over aspects of the
Historic Environment Strategy, and Historic
THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND
I
AUTUMN 2014
Environment Scotland Bill, which has now
passed its first parliamentary stage. The
merged RCAHMS and Historic Scotland
organisation, Historic Environment Scotland,
is proposed to have charitable status – a
concern to not just this Society, but many
other organisations. There are limited funds
available for building rescue, and Building
Preservation Trusts already struggle to raise
match funding on projects supported by
Historic Scotland and the Heritage Lottery
Fund. However, aside from the competition
for third party funding, the adequate
resourcing of the principal state organisation
responsible for the protection of the built
heritage in Scotland must not be seen as an
avoidable expense to drop, but simply
necessary to enable the responsible
guardianship required for our generation to
pass on to the future intact the rich and
varied designed environment that is
everyone’s right to enjoy. Our towns, our
buildings, from castles to byres, these are the
stories in stone of our history. Funding for
their proper care and maintenance is not a
buck to pass, and we should expect
exemplary standards to be set from the
highest level in this duty of care. The AHSS
comments on the Historic Environment
Scotland Strategy and Bill are included on
the Built Environment Forum Scotland
website (www.befs.org.uk).
I greatly enjoyed joining the annual study
tour in May arranged with huge skill and
many hours of careful preparation, by Simon
Green and Adam Swan, and taking the
chance to introduce myself to some of the
membership. I hope to be able to meet
more members at the AGM in October, and
look forward very much to visiting the
Crichton Campus in Dumfries.
A final thought, the Society’s voice in
speaking for the historic buildings of
Scotland is already respected, and our views
often sought. This voice could only be
strengthened, and the Society made more
able to counter the threats to our heritage,
by increased membership. Please suggest
joining to friends, consider giving a
membership as a Christmas present, or
presents! If we all recruit a single new
member each, we will double our strength!
We couldn’t do what we do without the
voluntary contributions of time, effort,
expertise and energies, from members too
numerous to mention, so to all, from a
fellow volunteer, I would like to express
enormous thanks.