What’s the Point 2: Lime Finishes in a Changing Climate

Name: What’s the Point 2: Lime Finishes in a Changing Climate
Start: 2026-04-14T09:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-04-14T09:01:00+00:00
Location: The Hospitium

About

In partnership with the Lime Finishes Group.

This event will bring together practitioners, scientists, historians and archaeologists to explore the evidence for traditional lime-based finishes and discuss the physical and cultural implications of their loss against a background of climate change and the need to make historic buildings resilient.

Speakers and topics:

- Abigail Lloyd - What can the Red Boxes tell us? A survey of historical finishes in Cumbria
- Douglas Kent - Beyond bare stone: The SPAB, surface finishes and the future of historic masonry
- Jamie McNamara - Soft surfaces in a hard climate: Lime and survival in Scottish church buildings
- Matthew Northover - Using lime finishes for aesthetic and protective repair needs at Scarborough Rotunda Museum
- Jo Cox - Lime finishes on Devon church towers: a building history view from the documents
- Kate North - Lime finishes on secular and religious buildings in North Yorkshire: a study through time, purpose and representation
- Louis Curtis - Evidence for removed external plaster finishes on historic timber frames in Hertfordshire.
- Maria-Elena Calderon - Thin skinned: Challenging the norm of three-coat plasters
- Milly Allen - Lime and Time: Challenging the role of archaeology in surface finishes
- Rachel Swallow - Pointing to the past: Revealing the lost surfaces of castles
- Richard Oram - ‘All Plastered and Lasted with Lime and Pancratch’: External renders of late-Medieval and Renaissance castles and houses in Scotland
- Rosanne Walker - Hygrothermal properties of historic lime mortars, plaster and renders
- Rose Lord - Beyond bare stone: Rethinking authenticity in the Lake District
- Steve Murray - Does external historic finish align with current practice?

Programme subject to change.

This event will take place both in-person at The Hospitium in York and online. For those attending in person, registration will start at 9am before the first talk starts at 9.45am. For those attending online, you can join the first session at 9.45am.

For those attending in-person, lunch and refreshments will be provided. The symposium will finish at 5pm.

This symposium will build on the success of the joint Historic Environment Scotland and Lime Finishes Group event held in Stirling in 2024.

The presentations will be recorded and available to view on the Historic England website following the event.