Traditional mortars in North-East Yorkshire: Part 1 – Historical context and early mortar practice

Author's Biography

Nigel Copsey started out as a dry-stone waller in Cornwall, UK, and after 1989 trained as stonemason and carver at Weymouth College, working largely thereafter in the conservation industry across the south and southwest of England, and regularly after 1999 in Vermont, USA, as well as in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. Nigel was masonry consultant on the Irish Hunger Memorial in New York City. Since 2001, Nigel has worked extensively as consultant and practitioner in the field of building conservation and repair in North Yorkshire, UK, upon a wide range of vernacular and high-status buildings, designing, specifying and executing major repair projects to a wide range of historic buildings within the town, as well as researching, designing and specifying a number of building repair and conservation projects on behalf of Natural England. During the last eight years, while mainly repairing historic buildings in York and beyond, Nigel has surveyed and specified the repair of St Luke’s Anglican Cathedral and the Carnegie Library in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and worked as consultant and practitioner at the Cole Island National Historic Site in Vancouver Island, British Columbia, as well as delivering traditional mortars workshops in Chicago and Nebraska in recent years. Nigel has contributed to several volumes of the recently published Historic England Practical Conservation series. A committed SPAB-member, Nigel is also a professionally accredited conservator-restorer and determined advocate for the thoroughgoing use of traditional materials in the care and repair of old buildings and a leading advocate for the routine use of hot mixed lime and traditional earth-lime mortars for most applications, working extensively with Historic England and international partners in the delivery of practical training and education in the informed use of traditional quicklime mortars for the like-forlike and compatible repair of historic buildings. A Research Associate of the Department of Archaeology, York University, Nigel regularly delivers hot mixed earth and lime mortars and traditional skills training. His book, Hot Mixed Lime and Traditional Mortars was published in 2019, as well as his HES Technical Paper 30, a review of historic literature concerning lime. He has more recently been awarded an MA by Research on the same. www.nigelcopsey.com; www.hotmixedmortars. com.