Louth Festival Of Conservation

April 15th 2012

On Saturday, 14th April the Louth Festival of Conservation took place, with exhibitions at the Methodist Church on Nichol Hill, specialist talks, and guided tours around the town's prominent listed buildings. The church hall was full of an impressive range of stalls, from specialist building contractors to historical charities and local groups with an interest in the heritage of our built environment. Lincolnshire Heritage At Risk and Louth Civic Trust organised this event. Other exhibitors included:

• The Victorian Society
• Churches Conservation Trust
• The Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings (SPAB)
• The Gatherums Regeneration Group
• Louth Navigation Trust
• GMS Architecture
• William Blyth
• The Basket Case/Wolds Collective
• Bishop Grosseteste University College
• Louth Museum

The Bishop Grosseteste stall was particularly interesting because it had displays of genuine archaeological finds including Roman tiles and coins, as well as finds from medieval and Victorian times and some replicas of attractive medieval brooches. The college offers degrees in heritage studies and MAs in heritage education and community archaeology, and some related short courses.

The Churches Conservation Trust is an English charity focused on preserving churches, and it runs various events. In order to keep churches in good repair they try to restore the community role that these buildings once had, as well as protecting and restoring their architecture. Out of this comes the ArChWay Project in Lincolnshire, which is an art project to put glassworks, poems and films on display in 14 churches during summer 2012.

The festival had a good mixture of historical information and commercial activity, with plenty of books on sale. It was gratifying to see just how many opportunities there are to get involved with our history, whether it's to learn more about it or to keep it up for future generations to enjoy.