Welsh historical buildings threatened by major skills shortage

A heritage officer based in Carmarthenshire has said buildings in Wales are endangered by a shortage of staff with skills to repair them.

A vast amount of the beautiful grand buildings that were built in Wales were constructed before 1919, the majority of which were created using stone. As a result, the buildings have started to become faulty, but with a lack of staff to help retain and repair them these properties have been put in danger.

Against this backdrop, the Welsh government said it has been working with partners to try and address the issues, they have involved their historic investment service Cadw.

To highlight the extremity of the problem, Carmarthenshire Council member Nell Hellier, told the BBC: ‘We have half a million traditional buildings in Wales. We need traditional building skills to repair them.’

As the moment Cllr Hellier works at the Tywi Centre, situated on the Dinefwr estate near Llandeilo, one of the only schools in the UK that offers specialist training and advice on skills essential for maintaining historic buildings.

An example of one building repair job that has been proven to be tricky for Wales is, in Powys, a three-year, multi-million-pound project to do essential roof repairs on Brecon’s 1,000-year-old cathedral was launched, but locating stone to replace roof tiles was almost impossible as well as finding craftspeople to do the job.

However, despite the job being difficult Cllr Hellier has noted that the country is attempting to improve on its ability to retain old buildings.

Cllr Hellier said there had been encouraging developments, including ‘a brief introduction to understanding heritage buildings’ was included on the new Welsh construction curriculum.

The Welsh government have also begun working with Qualifications Wales to develop new methods that will raise the profile of traditional building skills.

Image: Cas Holmes

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