About the Heritage Skills Initiative in Northern Ireland

Although no single coordinating body responsible for traditional building crafts skills currently exists in Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA, www.ni-environment.gov.uk), Heritage Lottery Fund (www.hlf.org.uk), preservation trusts and heritage groups have for some time worked to raise awareness of traditional buildings and their proper care and conservation.

These groups have provided various forms of information, advice and guidance to property-owners - and separately or in partnership  organised conferences, seminars, lectures, site visits and practical skills demonstrations - on different aspects of the care of old buildings for home-owners, architects and contractors and other interested parties.

CITB-Northern Ireland (http://www.citbni.org.uk/) and ConstructionSkills in Northern Ireland (http://www.constructionskillsni.org.uk/) are also involved in the training and skills development for the built heritage sector, which is a sub-set of the construction industry. It is one of the funders and key partners in the NHTG Traditional Building Craft Skills: Assessing the Need, Meeting the Challenge Skills Needs Analysis research of the built heritage sector in Ireland and will help to deliver its Skills Action Plan.

Apart from grant-aid, the NIEA also provides technical advice to owners of listed or traditional buildings and funds the joint publication The Directory of Traditional Buildings Skills with the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society (www.uahs.org.uk). This is a very useful resource on contractors and building professionals in the province with relevant expertise of traditional buildings.

The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society also provides advice on conservation of buildings and since 2002 has promoted the care and conservation of traditional building through its Home and Dry project. This hosts twice yearly one-day sessions for home-owners, architects, contractors and others including visits to buildings being conserved, or practical hands-on demonstrations from craftspeople.

Building preservation trusts, such as the twin Hearth Housing Association and Hearth Revolving Fund (www.hearth.org.uk) also play an invaluable role in preserving older buildings and providing high-quality housing. This contributes to the preservation of towns and villages in Northern Ireland and actively promotes the continued use of traditional building craft skills.
The HLF supports traditional building skills in a number of ways.

Excellent examples of their Townscape Heritage Initiatives (THI’s) are the award winning £1.2millon project in Draperstown and Moneymore and the £1.7million Walled City THI in Derry. These economic regeneration programmes which repair and reuse historic buildings to provide social and economic and community benefit also contribute to retaining the historic townscape character.