maintainourheritage

Our central belief is that any historic building not getting appropriate routine maintenance is a building at risk .

Maintain is a UK-wide not-for- profit group set up in 1997. It is unique in the UK in being concerned entirely with encouraging maintenance. For more on our activities, please see the What We Do page.

By “maintenance” we mean routine, preventive work such as clearing out drains and gutters, to reduce the rate at which the exposed materials decay: as a result of the unavoidable impacts of rainwater, wind and sun.

If it doesn’t get this, the building will need repeated, expensive repairs, often without warning – losing more and more its original fabric and authenticity each time. And if the money (or commitment) isn’t available at the right time, the building can be lost for ever.

Maintenance is accepted as one of the fundamental tenets of conservation. Article 4 of the influential Venice Charter of 1964 states: “It is essential to the conservation of monuments that they be maintained on a permanent basis.” The Australia ICOMOS Burra Charter, 2013, states simply that “Maintenance is fundamental to conservation.”

Despite this, millions of pounds are spent on the last-minute rescuing of buildings that with proper maintenance could have been saved at a fraction of the cost.

If you manage any historic building

Please take in the contents of this site and ensure that you are routinely maintaining it. This site signposts you to the ample advice available online on what to do and when.

If you care about historic buildings or areas

Look out for the signs of decay and neglect and advocate for its maintenance with whoever owns or manages it. This site will help you do this.

Current Activities

Guided by our research report Putting it Off and our experience with a practical maintenance project in Bath.

Putting It Off

Our “Putting it off” Research Programme Maintain our Heritage recently led a major research programme on maintenance issues.

Upload Your Images

If you know of any buildings in disrepair near you, tell us about it and we will feature it on our website!

What You Can Do

When you see a historic building needing maintenance, what can you do? This page brings together some hints and tips.

3737

Number of buildings and monuments at risk according to Historic England

Number of passers-by killed by falling masonry in the UK since 1999

1500000000

Maintain’s estimate of the cost of repairing 12,000 listed Church of England churches, rising at £70M a year

Maintain is a UK-wide not-for- profit group set up in 1997. It is unique in the UK in being concerned entirely with encouraging maintenance. For more on our activities, please see the What We Do page.

Current Activities

Putting It Off

Upload Your Images

What You Can Do

Latest News

Historic England ignores thousands of “Buildings at Risk”