William Heath’s blog

We’ve just celebrated the 100th anniversary of Vann with an SPAB/Plumbers conference.

WD Caroe moved to Vann in July 1908

We heard the history of Vann (also called Fen, Fanny or even Ffanny, meaning a wet and boggy place), and about WD Caroe and the Arts & Crafts movement, with which his relatioship s sometimes questioned.

We heard about William Morris’ 1850 Red House by Webb and his principles of healthy happy living surrounded by beauty and functional objects in a socialist society, and Morris’ 1890 “News from nowhere” novel. We heard about Pugin’s “Contrasts”, his desire for truth in architecture and preference for the gothic over the classical, and about Ruskin’s “nature of gothic” essay on the moral elements of gothic which included as I recall naturalism, changefulness, grotesqueness, rigidity, propriety, redundacy. That list is not quite complete and I will update.

Morris’ “Red House”

In Vann, we heard, changefulness abounds. Every aspect has a different appearance, yet there’s harmony. There’s a wealth of different materials - Bargate stone, bricks tiles, wooden shingles, half timbering with nogging (did I get that right for diagonal bricks?). There’s an organic appearance with local materials that blend with the colourscheme of the landscape.
A&C values require materials that show truth to construction.

WD Caroe did not describe himself as A&C, or subscribe to any set of rules but his own - hence the integrity of his oeuvre, also that fact that it defies classification. He did use prefabricated components eg the Kulm partitions; these would be anathema to A&C theorists - craftsman deprived of joy of seeing their work in final context. But the practicality of Caroe’s A&C interpretationmeant faster work of high quality and a steadier stream of commissions. He would treat each case on its merits, with practicality & imagination.

Perhaps we have a modest, puritanical, pedantic image of the “ideal” A&C practitioner. This does not fit WDC who was a demanding, workaholic successful businessman while other A&C pratitioners were a bit dreamy and inept. WD (who added the extra middle initial when water closets became popular) was a Tory, into classical as well as Gothic, and he worked well past WWI. In all these respects, Rosie argui he was atypical of the A&C. The verdict was that WD Caroe’s A&C style buildings were fine & true examples of A&C work. He deviated for sound practical reasons, as did others deemed to be central to the movement.

Things I need to check out:
William Robinson and his book “the Wild Garden” (Irishman with an anti-glasshouse vibe)
Gertrude Jekyll paintings in the Surrey history centre, Woking
Compton pottery works: Mary Watts/GF Watts - the Jekyll pot, also chapel, cemetary, gallery also. Closing after next few weeks for restoration (Update: I checked it out. The Chapel is marvellous, designed by local artist Mary Watts and decorated by 70 local villagers)

Compton chapel

Gravetye Manor retaurant with kitchen Garden, not far from E Grinstead
Hestercombe Devon
Hatchlands - C18th hot/dry late summer garden ,redesigned to a May/June garden which doesnt work
Philips memorial in Godalming (to radio operator from Titanic)
Munstead Wood yellow book - but all other houses sold off
St Hugh’s church Charterhouse, Somerset - gesamtkunstwerk
WDC’s house in Cyprus

ORG is supporting a campaign against copyright term extension:

Copyright in sound recordings currently lasts for 50 years. An independent review (the “Gowers review”) commissioned and endorsed by the UK government says it should remain at 50 years. Yet the recording industry continues to demand that this term be extended. But term extension would be an injustice to European musicians and musical culture, and may harm our economy.

If you agree that copyright term on sound recordings should not be extended past 50 years, please, sign this petition today.

When last I checked there were 13,000 signatures.

Open Rights Group is probably the coolest outfit I’ve ever had the pleasure to be associated with and it does the essential work of help those in power and the media become better informed about our rights in a digital age. We all support them with £5/month. Join us! And for a short while the lovely JRRT will double the funds.

Everyone dissed Beardie for raising the question of the possible role of Sharia processes in the. But now the Lord chief justice agrees (says the Beeb)

Lord Phillips said: “There is no reason why sharia principles, or any other religious code, should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution.

“It must be recognised, however, that any sanctions for a failure to comply with the agreed terms of mediation would be drawn from the laws of England and Wales.”

Severe physical punishments such as flogging, stoning and the cutting off of hands would not be acceptable, he said.

He added: “There can be no question of such courts sitting in this country, or such sanctions being applied here.

“So far as the law is concerned, those who live in this country are governed by English and Welsh law and subject to the jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts.”

Wanted: rural property suitable for 4-8 compact households sharing some common parts

Location: Anywhere in west country bounded by Reading, Portsmouth, Weymouth and Bristol

Essential: potential for 4-8 separate homes (whether detached, terraced or apartments)

Essential: Within two hours of London

Highly desirable: own water supply, woodlands, some land

Highly desirable: view

In need of building or refurbishment is fine. Part-completed project would be considered.

Likely total living space: c. 8000 sq feet

Possible type of property might be:

• vacant lot

• old army camp

• farm with farm buildings

• former factory, school or hospital

• defunct religious establishment.

We expect a traditional “grand” house is less likely to be suitable, but we would consider. Glad of comments. Pse email me if you know anything suitable.

What do we do about sex offenders? Get in a great lather, like the News of the World, and have baying mobs outside the houses of paediatricians?

Here’s a more sensible idea, with the launch today of the new Circles UK charity

A new national criminal justice charity, Circles UK, is being launched in London to support the development and effectiveness of Circles of Support and Accountability, (Circles), an award-winning community response to reducing sex offending.

Circles enable trained volunteers and criminal justice agencies to work together with the aim of “no more victims”. Circles originated in Canada, where studies show they can greatly reduce offending. The Home Office funded pilots in the UK, the two main ones being run by Quaker Peace and Social Witness and the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

The launch conference for Circles UK, on Tuesday 17 June, at Central Hall Westminster, London, will bring together more than a hundred people with expertise in dealing with sex offenders, including some from prison, probation and police services; academics and agencies working to promote child safety or working with adults at risk of sexual offending.

Keynote speakers include Maria Eagle MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice; Professor David Wilson, criminologist, writer and broadcaster; Tim Newell, former prison governor and worker for restorative justice; Dr Robin Wilson, forensic psychologist, Clinical Director, Florida Civil Commitment Centre; and Tim Richley, Criminal Justice Adviser, SACRO, Scotland.

Helen Drewery of Quaker Peace and Social Witness, said: “It was a little daunting for the Quakers in 1999 to pioneer this work in the UK. It was a big task for a small faith group. This work shows that the community can respond positively to the challenge of released sex offenders living in our communities.”

If there’s a toughter problem to tackle, I can’t immediately think of it. Hurrah for the Friends!

Poland was the place of poverty, Catholicism and courage where Communism started to unravel. Now it’s in danger of getting stuck with a racist and homophobic reputation. And look at this unstatesmanlike remark from their PM about Howard Webb’s decision to award a penalty in the Euro 2008 match between Poland and Austria:

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk made it clear he was also finding it hard to accept and admitted he had difficulty controlling his anger after the match. He said: “As the prime minister I have to be balanced and collected. But last night I was speaking very differently about the whole thing, I wanted to kill. Referees make mistakes and this was an obvious error that harmed us all.”

But William Gaillard said on behalf of Uefa: “We don’t think it is controversial that a player is pulled down by the shirt and a penalty is given…It [Webb’s decision] was certainly within the laws of the game.”

Leader of the House Harriet Harman is doing a consultation on the draft legislative programme for next year. I’m vexed by the suggested data communications bill, so here’s how I responded: Read the rest of this entry »

The Senator Clinton campaign had a - to British tastes - somewhat cheesey “wish Hilary a Happy Mothers’ day” web site. So I did… Read the rest of this entry »

Still on the theme prompted by the IBM GIO summit on “security & society” I’ve just finished the Barack Obama book Audacity of Hope. He has some very pertinent observations on national security, and the control paradigm vs sustainable security. Read the rest of this entry »