The success of the National Trust for Jersey’s Pitt Street regeneration programme, which provides a home for a busy café and some sensitively restored accommodation, shows what the restoration of historic buildings can do for a town.
It now seems unimaginable that the owner of the site wanted to demolish them.
One of the practical problems of restoring buildings like these is the lack of trained craftspeople with the skills to carry out the work. Jersey is not alone in this:. There is an increasing lack of traditional building skills in all developed countries. This has been recognized in England since the second half of the 20th Century with the formation of COTAC (The Council on Training in Architectural Conservation).
More recently, the (English) National Trust’s Heritage Craft Apprenticeship Programme started in September 2022 which provides training in historic building skills.
The Jersey Building Preservation Trust, which was launched in late 2023, will help plug our own skills gap. It will offer training here in Jersey for both tradespeople and construction professionals. The trust ran 4 courses in 2023 and our spring series will start in April, with more courses to follow later in the year.
For some, the courses will offer both continuing professional development and the opportunity to become accredited in historic building conservation. At present there are only two construction professionals in Jersey who are accredited by their respective institutes. For others, enhancing existing skills and learning new ones will help start a career in the restoration of period properties. Some builders are already active in this part of the market, but more are needed.
Helping the Island’s move towards Net Zero is also important. Almost a third of buildings in Jersey are of traditional construction, with solid masonry walls. Ensuring they are not demolished, and retrofitting them to optimise their energy efficiency will lessen the carbon emissions associated with new build. In line with this, the trust is offering a NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) Level 3 course in energy efficiency measures in traditional buildings in April.
Andium Homes’ senior surveyor, Daniel Le Crom, said that with a capital programme to deliver 3,000 new rental and first-time-buyer homes by 2030, they are delighted to be working in partnership with the JBPT, the National Trust for Jersey and Jersey Heritage to provide these specialised construction courses: “At Andium Homes, we recognise and value the need to maintain and restore historic buildings in the Island and believe these courses are a fantastic way to upskill local people while keeping traditional building methods alive,”
The JBPT has been helped hugely by the support of a grant from The Community Foundation to develop courses in 2024. The National Trust for Jersey, Andium Homes and Jersey Heritage are also supporting by offering buildings as case studies where students can see real-life examples of building conservation in action.
Both Jersey Heritage and the National Trust for Jersey, as custodians of some of the Island’s best-known historic buildings, have a particular interest in ensuring that the skills necessary to maintain them are available within the Island It is hoped that the courses will start to spread the word about the joy of repairing hand-made buildings. Before 1919 – when the first building act to introduce the concept of cavity walls was introduced – almost all buildings in Jersey were hand-made.
During the 20th Century, mechanisation resulted in buildings becoming increasingly machine made.
Further information about courses offered by the Jersey Building Preservation Trust can be found here.
