Students look back to go forward

9:52am Saturday 14th October 2006

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STUDENTS from York College and Easingwold School stepped back in time at Castle Howard.

They got an insight into the skills and knowledge that are required to care for, repair and maintain an outstandingly important historic building as part of National Construction Week.

The students spent the day touring Castle Howard, near Malton, and examining the architecture with experts from Castle Howard, English Heritage and private architectural conservation practices in Yorkshire. They saw demonstrations of surveying techniques applied to historic buildings and demonstrations of traditional building skills, such as stone masonry, timber repairs and lime mortars. The day included visual displays by the English Heritage metric survey team, located in York, of stereo-photography and digital photogrammetric processing projected to experience real-time 3D imagery using polarising glasses.

Pam Lee, CITB-ConstructionSkills education and careers advisor, said: "The architecture and surveying skills required to repair and maintain such beautiful buildings as Castle Howard are very relevant in the modern built environment.

"It is important that the skills are taken forward and presented to the next generation of architects, surveyors and craft workers.

"All the students who attended the event now have a greater understanding of the traditional skills and detail that went into constructing our historic buildings."