Technical Conservation, Research and Education in Historic Scotland

Abstract

A useful way of understanding the purposes and ethos of Historic Scotland's Division for Technical Conservation, Research and Education (TCRE) is to regard them as emerging naturally from the career of its founder Director, Ingval Maxwell (Figure I). As a very junior architect, Maxwell underwent a damascene conversion after being instructed to insert a fire hose into the fabric of Dunblane Cathedral. He had designed and detailed the project when he suddenly realized that he was requiring permanent alteration—a fixing—to the beautiful ashlar inherited from the fourteenth century. It would have caused irreversible damage—which, since there were other, less drastic ways of achieving the same end, would have been needless destruction. Maxwell concluded: ‘When you are dealing with a sensitive and sympathetic old fabric, the question must be—is it reversible?’So, when TCRE was established almost 25 years later in 1993, it had the aim of developing skills relating to the built heritage, researching appropriate conservation issues, and raising the standard of conservation practice amongst owners, contractors and professionals. Six years later, we should be able to evaluate its output and begin to assess its effectiveness.