If you are a new visitor to the Dance Scholarship Trust website and are interested in the SPAB’s nine month long training scheme for young building conservation professionals you can find details about the Scholarship programme and how to apply on the SPAB website.

Tony Evans and Hugh Conway Morris

At the Dance Scholarship Trust AGM held in Deerhurst St Mary on Saturday 3rd September Tony Evans presented a gift of thanks to Hugh Conway Morris for all his hard work in organising the Great Thames Row, for captaining the skiff and most importantly for remaining indefatigably cheerful throughout.

Well done Hugh!

Planned events will include tours of Tewkesbury Abbey led by Neil Birdsall and Andrew Townsend and a visit to the John Moore Countryside Museum with its secret gardens.

In the evening there will be a champagne reception in the garden of Forthampton Court followed by a buffet dinner.

The full Itinerary for the weekend is now available.

And more good news – the sum raised so far is now £1,455.  With two and a half days still to go we have decided to raise the bar (oar?) so we’re now aiming for £2,000. Thanks to everyone who has donated money to support the Dance Scholarship Trust so far.  If you haven’t yet made your pledge please visit justgiving.com today!

The sponsorship money is flowing in too – the team have raised £1380 for far and are only £120 short of their target of £1500.  Can you help them to beat this?  Go to justgiving.com to make your pledge!

Greetings to all the crew and dedicated supporters of the Stella who will be taking part in our week-long voyage down the Thames.  Many thanks to all of you who have helped to make this a reality!

We have now published the final itinerary – all details of pick-up and drop-off points, camping spots and watering holes are correct at time of going to press.  We have also included details of who is rowing when. There are still refinements to be made to this schedule, but it looks like we will be rowing at full capacity almost every day!

We start tomorrow morning (Tuesday), with a photo-shoot courtesy of John Lawrence, at Kelmscott Manor before 7am, and finish with a reception at Kelmscott House in Hammersmith on Bank Holiday Monday at around 4pm, to which you are all very cordially invited.  You can also follow our progress on Twitter using @greatthamesrow, or you can follow our live Twitter feed on the Dance Scholarship Trust website homepage.

We do have a number of lunch-dates and dinners arranged along the river throughout the week.  If you find that you are nearby at any point, do call us and we will integrate you into our programme!

We look forward to seeing you on board or at Hammersmith.

Best wishes, Hugh (SPAB Scholar 2009)

This year, the committee are proposing to raise the stakes and the cash by rowing the full 132 miles between Kelmscott Manor and Kelmscott House in a traditional Thames ‘skiff’. The Great Thames Row will take the amateur rowers seven days, starting at Kelmscott Manor on Tuesday 24^th May and finishing at Kelmscott House, London, on Bank Holiday Monday 30^th May.

So please dig deep, hope that it doesn’t rain and sponsor us via JustGiving.com.  Please make your donations now!

Alan was the Outstanding Paper Award Winner 2011 for the academic journal papers entitled “Condition survey objectivity and philosophy driven masonry repair:  An increased probability for project divergence” published in Structural Survey.

In addition, he was Highly Commended Paper Award Winner 2011 for the academic journal papers entitled “Building conservation philosophy for masonry repair:  Part 2 – Principles” published in Structural Survey. Well done Alan!

You can read more about Alan’s work on the Heriot Watt website.