Guidance Notes:

• Pests
  • Insect Pests Found in Historic Houses: A poster illustrating a selection of insect pests most commonly found in historic houses and museums in the UK.

  To best identify the insect pests it is recommended that you order a hard copy of the poster from English Heritage Customer Services. If the poster is downloaded and printed in A4 or A3 size, the insect actual size icons will be incorrect. Free copies of the poster are available from English Heritage Customer Services Tel: 0370 333 1181, quoting product number 506506 or email customers@english-heritage.org.uk. Please note that as we are a charity we request that customers ordering copies pay for postage/carriage costs. Any orders sent overseas will also incur postage costs.

  You can also purchase Pests in Houses Great and Small, a concise but comprehensive illustrated guide to the key pest species that commonly cause damage when they infest houses and collections.

  • Insectes ravageurs trouvés demeures historiques et musées: French version of the poster
  • English Heritage Guideline for Insect Pest Management in English Heritage Historic Properties
  • Freezing Guidelines for Controlling Insect Pest Infestation
  • Top Tips for Preventing Clothes Moth Infestations
  • Clothes Moth Prevention & Control Guidelines
  • The Exosex Clothes Moth System and English Heritage
  • House mice and rodents in historic buildings and museums
  • Varied carpet beetle - fact sheet 1
  • Furniture beetle - fact sheet 2
  • Death watch beetle - fact sheet 3
  • Webbing clothes moth - fact sheet 4
  • Case-bearing clothes moth - fact sheet 5
  • Cluster flies - fact sheet 6
  • Biscuit beetle - fact sheet 7 (2017)
  • Silverfish - fact file 8
  • Booklice - fact file 9
  • Spider beetles - fact sheet 10
  • Two spot carpet beetle and vodka beetle - fact sheet 11
  • Guernsey carpet beetle - fact sheet 12
  • Feral pigeons - fact sheet 13
  • Indian meal moth - fact sheet 14
  • Rodents - fact sheet 15

   

  MONITORING TOOLS

  • English Heritage Insect ID Monitoring Sheet
  • Manual for using the Insect Pest Monitoring sheet
  • English Heritage Guideline for Recording Insect Pest Data onto Floor Plans

• Hospitality Events in Historic Houses
  • Practical Conservation Guidelines for Successful Hospitality Events in Historic Houses

   

  RISK ASSESSMENT TOOLS

  • Risk Assessment Spreadsheet for Hospitality Events in Historic Houses
  • Instructions for Using the Hospitality Risk Assessment Spreadsheet

• Care of Archaeological Metalwork
  • Guidelines for the Storage and Display of Archaeological Metalwork
  • Instruction for Using Low Relative Humidity Showcase Silica Gel Lifetime Spreadsheet
  • Calculating Lifetime of Silica Gel in Low RH Showcases (15 minute data intervals)
  • Calculating Lifetime of Silica Gel in Low RH Showcases (30 minute data intervals)
  • Calculating Lifetime of Silica Gel in Low RH Showcases (60 minute data intervals)

• Management of Showcases
  • AD acetic calculator
  • Updated MEMORI decision support tool

• Collections Management Planning
  • Historic House Collections: Drawing up a Collections Management Plan

  Hard copies can be obtained from Historic England.

Technical Papers:

These publications cover aspects of preventive conservation and science research which have been carried out in association with English Heritage artefact collections and interiors. Additional project work by external heritage science researchers can also be found here.

• Preventive Conservation and Risk Management
  • Heritage Collections at Risk: English Heritage Collections Risk and Condition Audit
  • Conserving and Presenting Brodsworth Hall: New Approaches for a Sustainable Future
  • Glitter and Gunge: Preserving the Future of JW Evans
  • Environmental Management Performance Standards
  • Environmental Management Strategies and Challenges in Historic Houses
  • Frontiers of Preventive Conservation
  • Effect of Particulate Matter on Paper Degradation
  • Piezo-Electric Quartz Crystal-Based Dosimetry and Damage Assessment of Parchment and Artists' Varnish
  • Critical Knowledge Gaps in Environmental Risk Assessment
  • Using Non-Invasive Non-Destructive Techniques to Monitor Cultural Heritage Objects
  • Life After a Collections Risk and Condition Survey

• Sustainability
  • Sustainable Collections Environments
  • Better Use of Showcases for Preservation and Sustainability
  • Comparison of Environmental Control Strategies for Historic Buildings
  • Managing Silver Tarnish
  • Silver Maintenence Sustainability spreadsheet - for estimating carbon footprints and other sustainability indices for maintaining silver collections
  • How to Calculate the Carbon footprint of a Painting Conservation Treatment at English Heritage

• Climate Change
  • Managing The Impact of Climate Change on Historic Interiors
  • The Impact of Climate Change on Historic Interiors: Final Appendices

• Dust
  • Dust in Historic Libraries
  • Managing Dust in Historic Houses – A Visitor/Conservator Interface

• Insect Pests
  • Long-term Changes in Climate and Insect Damage in Historic Houses
  • Ten Years of Integrated Pest Management at English Heritage
  • 2013 Update on the IPM Programme at English Heritage
  • Operation Clothes Moth - Where Preventive Conservation and Public Engagement Meet

• Light
  • Managing Natural Light in Historic Properties

• Metals
  • Preventing Silver Tarnish – Lifetime Determination of Cellulose Nitrate Lacquer
  • Post Excavation Changes and Preventive Conservation of Archaeological Iron
  • Reactivity Monitoring of Atmospheres
  • Development of Damage Functions for Copper
  • Effects of Light on Silver Tarnishing
  • Corrosion Protection for Complex Large Equipment

• Mould
  • The Interactions between Fungi and British Heritage Buildings
  • Testing Damage Functions for Mould Growth

• Paintings
  • Measurement of Organic and Inorganic Pollutants in Picture Frames
  • Conservation and Investigation of a Painting by Jan Baptist Weenix

• Paper and Parchment
  • Libraries and Archives in Historic Buildings
  • Damage Function for Historic Paper - Part I: Fitness for Use
  • Damage Function for Historic Paper - Part II: Wear and Tear
  • Damage Function for Historic Paper - Part III: Isochrones and Demography of Collections

• Plastics
  • Preventive Conservation Research for Plastics on Open Display

• Showcases
  • Presentation in Original Contexts via Microclimates
  • Retrofitting Old Display Cases
  • Development of Showcases for Archaeological Metals in Aggressive Environments
  • The Effect of Air Tightness on RH Buffering and Control
  • Air Exchange Rate – the Dominant Parameter for Preventive Conservation?
  • Simple Methods to Measure Air Exchange Rates and Detect Leaks in Display and Storage Enclosures
  • Reduction of Acidic Pollutant Gases inside Showcases

• Stone
  • Assessing the Performance of Protective Winter Covers for Outdoor Marble Statuary: Pilot Investigation
  • Management of Sodium Sulphate Damage to Polychrome Stone

• Stores
  • A New Beginning for English Heritage's Archaeological and Architectural Stored Collections
  • Test for Compatibility with Organic Heritage Materials - A Proposed Full Paper Procedure
  • Principles for developing low-cost, sustainable stores

• Textiles
  • Designing Accelerated Ageing Experiments to Study Silk Deterioration in Historic Houses
  • Non-destructive Testing of Silk: Problems and Possibilities
  • Applying Preventive Conservation Recommendations for Silk in Historic Houses
  • Preserving Silk: Reassessing Deterioration Factors for Historic Silk Artefacts
  • Determining the Stability and Durability of Archaeological Materials
  • Reducing the Risk of Open Display: Optimising the Preventive Conservation of Historic Silks

• Vibration
  • Vibration Damage Levels for Museum Objects

• Wood
  • Determination of Response Rates of Wooden Objects to Fluctuating Relative Humidity in Historic Properties

CEN Standards

The European Committee for Standardisation Technical Committee 346 (CEN TC 346) is developing European Standards (ENs) for conservation. Four working groups are developing standards that impact on preventive conservation:

• WG4: Protection of collections
• WG6: Exhibition lighting of cultural heritage – Joint working group between TC 346 and TC 169
• WG7: Specifying and measuring indoor/outdoor climate
• WG8: Energy efficiency of historic buildings

• Published Standards
  • EN 15757: Specifications for temperature and relative humidity to limit climate- induced mechanical damage in organic hygroscopic materials.
  • EN 15758: Procedures and instruments for measuring temperatures of the air and the surfaces of objects.
  • EN 15759-1: Indoor climate, Part 1: Guidelines for heating churches, chapels and other places of worship.
  • EN 16242: Procedures and instruments for measuring humidity in the air and moisture exchanges between air and cultural property.

  
  Full list of published standards

  The standards can be purchased from any member organisation of the British Standards Institute (BSI) in the UK.

• Standards under preparation
  • prEN 15999-1 Conservation of cultural heritage: Guidelines for management of environmental conditions – Recommendations for showcases used for exhibition and preservation of cultural property, Part 1: General requirements
    
    

  Full list of Standards in progress