In 1991, the Building Crafts and Conservation established a building  conservation centre at West Kent College in Tunbridge Wells with a Board of Trustees that included leading figures in architectural conservation. The Trust was registered with the Charity Commission in 1993.  From 1994 until 2001, the Trust was based at Dover Castle. This year the Trust is moving its workshops to Yonsea Farm near Woodchurch in Kent.

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Short Courses

Since its incorporation, the Trust has run short courses with emphasis on practical work. Rather than maintain a set programme, the Trust designs courses to meet the special requirements of groups of  delegates.  Courses have been run for local authorities, professional institutions and further education establishments, as well as architects and surveyors

Term training

Under the Government's training for Work Scheme, the Trust held a number of traditional building courses jointly with Colleges of Further Education.  The students' site work saw repairs to local historic buildings including Dover Castle, Neptune's Tower, Kingsgate Castle, Chatham Historic Dockyard and Fort Amhurst.

The Building Crafts and Conservation Trust considers that traditional building crafts promote the use of sustainable building materials. To this end, the Trust has managed two woodland regeneration projects.

Today, the Trust is pleased to discuss with educational institutions in both tertiary and adult education, ways in which courses can be structured to give students or career changers an opportunity to gain new and useful skills.

The opportunity has been taken to provide on site training in the Yonsea Farm project owned and managed by the Traditional Buildings Preservation Trust. 

Two members of the direct work force of the Traditional Buildings Preservation Trust.