OWNING an historic house can be a great pleasure - but also a potential nightmare when its comes to the cost of upkeep and the need from time to time to employ rare craftsmen who can work with ancient materials and skills to specifications laid down by English Heritage.

Barden Church just one of the historic buildings
dotting the Dales landscape
Photo: English Heritage

The Yorkshire Dales are dotted with such properties and not all of them are stately homes. There are scores of farmhouses and barns, for instance, which date back to the 16th and 17th Centuries, properties much in demand from people who when they buy them often have little understanding of the complex maintenance they require if they are to be kept in good condition.

But help is one hand from the Yorkshire Dales National Park, which is organising a training day on October 22 which will help owners learn how to help them keep their properties in tip top condition. Topics to be discussed include:

• traditional building materials - lime in building,

• listed buildings and the planning system,

• buildings change - the way that individual buildings develop over time,

• building conservation principles,

• employing an Architect and running a contract.

A similar two day event was held last April in Grassington so this event is being held in the north of the National Park at Yoredale, the YDNPA's new office in Bainbridge. Owing to limited space, anyone interested in taking part is asked to write to Don McLellan at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Yoredale, Bainbridge, Leyburn, North Yorkshire DL8 3EL, telephone 01969 652337 or e-mail don.mclellan@yorkshiredales.org.uk

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