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JOINT
STANDING COMMITTEE FOR THE
CHURCH
HERITAGE RECORD
CONSULTATION
ON
NEEDS
AND OPTIONS STUDY
BY
DAVID
BAKER AND GILL CHITTY
CLOSING
DATE FOR RESPONSES – 31 OCTOBER 2001
This Report, by David Baker and Gill Chitty, (at www.britarch.ac.uk/adca/chrrep.pdf
in PDF format requiring Acrobat reader software)
was commissioned by the Council for the Care of Churches (CCC) and
the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England (CFCE) with support
from the Archbishops’ Council, the Department for Culture Media
and Sport and English Heritage (EH).
Following its delivery and initial consideration by the
sponsors, a national Standing Committee has been appointed jointly
by CCC, CFCE and EH, tasked with carrying out a consultation on the
Report’s recommendations.
Members of the Standing Committee are:-
Council for the Care of Churches
Mrs Mary Saunders
Dr Joseph Elders
Cathedrals Fabric Commission
Dr Philip Dixon
Dr Richard Gem
English Heritage
Mr Nigel Clubb
Mr Richard Halsey
Ms Helen Maclagan
Church of England Dioceses
Mr Phil Hamlyn Williams
Association of English Cathedrals
Mr Ian Dunn
Church of England Record Centre
Mr Ed Pinsent
Ecclesiastical Architects & Surveyors
Association and Association of Cathedral Architects
Mr William Hawkes
Association of Diocesan and Cathedral
Archaeologists
Ms Carolyn Heighway
Association of Local Government Archaeology
Officers
Mr John Williams
Institute of Historic Building Conservation
Dr Richard Morrice
National Amenity Societies
Have declined offer to nominate for present.
The Standing Committee is writing directly to the following
people and organisations as part of the consultation:
Diocesan Advisory Committees
Diocesan Secretaries
Archdeacons
Diocesan Archaeological Advisers
Cathedral Fabric Advisory Committees
Deans and Provosts
Cathedral Administrators
Cathedral Architects
Cathedral Archaeological Consultants
Association of Diocesan and Cathedral Archaeologists
Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association
Cathedral Architects Association
Ecclesiastical Judges Association
Ecclesiastical law Association
Cathedral Libraries and Archives Association
National Council on Archives
Association of Chief Archivists in Local Government
Association of Local Government Archaeology Officers
Institute of Historic Building Conservation
Other parties are also welcome to comment
directly on the Report if they consider that they cannot channel
their views through one of the above routes.
The covering letter to the consultation has
indicated that the purpose of the exercise is to establish whether
there is a consensus in support of the overall strategy recommended
in the Report. It
goes on to invite consultees to look ahead to where they would like
to find themselves in the longer term if resources permit.
Correspondingly, at this stage, the aim is less one of focussing on
the limitations imposed by the current financial climate -- though
of course resource issues have to be recognised and addressed.
At the outset, attention is drawn to one or two
points. The “Church
Heritage Record” is a concept covering the aggregation of all
information about the Church’s heritage, wherever it is held and
in whatever form. For
such information to be available for effective use it needs to be
properly managed – and that is what the Report is essentially
about, basing itself on three assumption
-
The Church’s heritage is of great value
to the nation and needs careful stewardship to safeguard its
future;
-
If the actual surviving heritage is
valuable, so is information about it, for its potential to
satisfy a wide range of needs;
-
If information is valuable, then it is
essential to manage it effectively in order to maximise its
usefulness.
In fact, much of the recording activity
referred to in the Report is already going on, while Statements of
Significance have recently become a requirement for parish churches.
The proposals for better management of the resulting
information may be seen as adding value to these by enabling their
more effective use
Two recommendations in the Report are of key
importance. The first
is that the management of information about the Church’s heritage
should be distributed
between the local and national levels (and not something compiled
and maintained centrally as a unitary entity).
The second is that management should be shared
between those church and secular bodies that have heritage
responsibilities, creating partnerships in which each supports the
other.
The Standing Committee would especially welcome
the views of consultees on the following issues:-
-
The
desirability and feasibility of the overall strategy proposed in
the report
-
The
principle of developing closer collaboration between the Church
side and Sites and Monuments Records
-
Whether
there is interest, in particular areas, in setting up local
pilot schemes.
Views on the report more generally, and on
particular aspects of it, are also welcomed, but consultees are
asked please to
follow the numerical sequence of the Report’s recommendations
in responding, since this will enable a coherent synthesis to be
prepared of the views of all respondents.
The closing date for responses to the
consultation is 31st
October 2001. All
responses should be sent to :-
Dr Joseph Elders, Council for the Care of
Churches, Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3NZ ( joseph.elders@c-of-e.org.uk
);
Or Dr Richard Gem, Cathedrals Fabric Commission, Church House, Great
Smith Street, London SW1P 3NZ ( richard.gem@c-of-e.org.uk
);
Or Mr Nigel Clubb,
English Heritage, National Monuments Record Centre, Kemble Drive,
Swindon, Wiltshire, SN2 2GZ ( nigel.clubb@english-heritage.org.uk
).
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