THE devastating fire at Notre Dame last month dramatically highlighted the vulnerability of historic buildings. Closer to home, many historic sites are at risk of fire.

SAIQA CHAUDHARI reports.

THE moorland fires which raged last summer damaged extensively, if not destroyed, archaeological sites ­— and the number of blazes damaging historical structures appears to be on the increase.

On Saturday, the risk of fire to our heritage and what can be done in the future to plan for such risks will be discussed at the Council for British Archaeology North West spring conference entitled Fire and Forge at Bolton Museum.

Talks will also explore how fire has shaped local history and its use in folk magic and superstition, evidence of which can been seen in Bolton’s historic homes.

Chairman of the organisation, Ian Trumble said: “Given the fact there were the moorland fires last year and historic buildings, which seem to be going up in flames quite regularly at the moment, it was thought this quite a poignant topic. After arranging the conference, we had the fire at Notre Dame.”

He added: “The North West has a lot of historic buildings, just look at the Bolton you have Smithills Hall and Hall i’ the’Wood, two medieval buildings.

“There is always going to be that risk and that’s why we came up with the conference idea.”

Wythenshaw Hall, a 16th century Tudor mansion, was partly destroyed in an arson attack on March 15, 2016.

The historic Church of Ascension in Lower Broughton, Salford, was ravaged by a huge fire in 2017 after undergoing renovation funded by charity grants.

Yesterday a fire broke out in the listed Beehive Mill.

Mr Trumble said: “Obviously there is arson and neglect.

“You have people being neglectful and careless, lighting barbecues and you also have basic funding issues and neglect of buildings

“Historic buildings in particular are very vulnerable to fire damage, not just through arson, there is not the money for the upkeep, so you are going to run these risks.

“You have risks associated with conservation, like Notre Dame, the first reports we have seen seem to be that it was caused by conservation work, so even when trying to conserve buildings is that risk. There have been more moorland fires this year already than any other year on record, and we are starting to look at how you deal with that.

“There is English Heritage and couple of other big institutions looking at how we manage that because it trashed the moorlands.

“We have not done the survey yet but we do know archaeological sites have been affected

“That’s part of what the conference will look at, how we manage this going forward, what do we do, do we have plans in place?”

Mr Trumble, who works at the museum, said investment, upkeep and bringing buildings back into use can minimise the risk of fires ­— both accidental and arson.

He added that historic buildings are not fireproofed like modern buildings and not built to provide easy access for firefighters.

He said buildings looked after by museums or by national heritage bodies are protected as best they can

“There are fire regulations at Smithills Hall and Hall ‘i’th’ Wood.

“If a building has eyes on it constantly it is more difficult for a fire to get out of control,” he said, “Unfortunately for other buildings, there is being on at-risk registers, where you have bodies trying to put pressure on investors to look after them and having listed building status, but they only go so far in protecting these buildings.”

Mr Trumble said the preservation of mills was a pressing concern.

He explained: “If you think about the mills we had and we have got now, you have lost 70 per cent of mills across Greater Manchester in the space of 60 years.

“Suddenly you get these mill fires happening, you get the buildings being demolished and not being reused and then we end up with none, and that’s a big chunk of our history gone.

“We look at medieval halls and say we must preserve that because they are so old, we don’t think about the mills because they are so close to our own memory. We have people who still work in them or family who worked in them so it’s really not in our consciousness to go ‘this is our heritage’.”

The public can play a part in bringing smaller historic building back in use by using local groups, through accessing grants. Mr Trumble described the fire which ravaged Wythenshawe Hall as “gut wrenching”.

He said: “Its that loss of something, you can’t get it back.”

Once a building is destroyed, something has been lost, he said.

“You can’t replace that, no matter what you do. What makes it important is its temporality, it is locked in that time period and even though it is of a time, it still has this connection throughout time. Even though you can replace it like for like, it has lost what it was and what it became.”

For information visit www.britarch.ac.uk/cbanw/CBANW_meetings_intro.html