Working party site wins award

A 16th-century cottage we helped to save has won an award from the Nottinghamshire Buildings Preservation Trust.  

In 2019 we held a Working Party to carry out urgent repairs to Auld Cottage, a modest timber-framed building in Norwell, Nottinghamshire. Auld Cottage had been unoccupied since the 1960s, and locals including SPAB Scholar (1997) Jane Holt and the Norwell Parish Heritage Group were deeply concerned about its rapidly deteriorating condition.

Before winter set in, we gathered a small, dedicated group of specialists and volunteers who worked hard for two days propping up the structure and repairing the leaking roof.  

Now under new ownership, the cottage has been skilfully conserved under the direction of SPAB Guardian Britt Harwood and is now a holiday let. In December of last year the project was declared the winner of the Harry Johnson Award, given by the Nottinghamshire Building Preservation Trust Limited and the Nottingham Branch of the Campaign to Protest Rural England (CPRE).   

Our short Working Party helped bring the building back from the brink of damage through the winter. Credit: Lorna Glanfield-Morgan

Before and after conservation. Credit: Lorna Glanfield-Morgan

Are you enthusiastic about old buildings? Find out how you could volunteer at one of our week-long Working Parties to learn hands-on repair skills and help to give an old building a future.