IHBC 2025 Gus Astley Student Award winners

The winner of the IHBC Gus Astley Student Awards for 2025 has been selected by guest judge, IHBC’s Vice President Torsten Haak, as Jack Parker, (Oxford Brookes) for work on ‘Hewing’, while the IHBC’s Booth-Bird award winner is Andrew Pettifor (Birmingham City University), as both secure places at our 2026 Newcastle School alongside cash prizes.

Torsten Haak said of the process that: ‘It was an honour to be invited to judge this year’s awards.’

‘Given my long-standing involvement in heritage, I was eager to see how fresh ideas, collaboration, and purpose are shaping the sector’s future. As anticipated, I was delighted to be inspired by the innovation and integrity shown in this year’s entries.’

Jack Parker of Oxford Brookes University and the University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education (Historic Conservation MSc) has taken the top award with a prize of £500 for his Capstone Project, ‘SQUARING THE CIRCLE: What is the Role of Hewing in UK Historic Conservation?’.

Torsten said of Jack’s work: ‘This was an outstanding and highly engaging piece of work (including author’s own explanatory drawings). Hewing was a technique I had not previously encountered in the UK context, and the dissertation offered a clear, well-structured, and convincing exploration of its relevance. The contemporary significance of the topic is evident, particularly in light of recent high-profile conservation projects in France, such as the restoration of Notre-Dame.

Jack’s supervisor on the project, Dr, Karl Kropf, said: ‘It was a pleasure and privilege to work with Jack. His energy and enthusiasm were central to bringing together his direct, hands-on skills and experience and his intellectual curiosity to produce such an outstanding project . We’re particularly pleased that Jack took full advantage of the wider remit for research opened up by the recently introduced Capstone Project and for his efforts to be recognised by the judges and IHBC’.

Jack said: ‘I am delighted to receive the Gus Astley Student Award. My research explores how hewing, as a traditional method of timber conversion, can contribute to more sustainable and informed approaches to contemporary historic building conservation practice. It is heartening to see that craft-based research, focusing on traditional skills in relation to current challenges around sustainability, material understanding, and heritage skills transmission, is valued by the conservation sector. I am very grateful to the IHBC, and the award is a real encouragement at an early stage in my career.’

The IHBC’s own Booth-Bird Prize for a Conservation Management Plan (CMP) or Conservation Options Appraisal was won by Andrew Pettifor of Birmingham City University (MA Conservation of the Historic Environment). Andrew secures a prize of £150 alongside his place at the Newcastle School.

Andrew’s CMP was titled ‘Conservation Management Plan – The People’s Hall, Nottingham’.

Andrew’s tutor, Katriona Byrne, said:

‘I am delighted that my student Andrew Pettifor, studying the PG Diploma in Conservation of the Historic Environment at Birmingham City University, has received this year’s Booth-Bird prize for his Conservation Management Plan on The People’s Hall, Heathcote Street, Nottingham. This is an eighteenth-century building which is Grade II* listed and is highly significant as a rare surviving Nottingham Georgian townhouse, displaying mid-eighteenth-century ideals of classical architecture and with much retained original internal fabric and decoration. That the building was constructed by a wealthy businesswoman, Ann Morley, adds further national significance, alongside the adaptive re-use and extension of the building through the Victorian era, first as the first School of Art and Design opened outside London and then, as The People’s Hall, a place dedicated to the temporal wellbeing and happiness of the working classes.’

‘The condition of the Hall had deteriorated after years of vacancy and is again at risk following the collapse, due to Covid-19, of a 2019 part-HLF-funded, proposed conversion to a Business Hub. Andrew explored options such as residential and office use and devised policies for its protection.’

Andrew said ‘I am delighted and honoured to have received the Booth Bird Prize in this year’s Gus Astley Student Awards for my Conservation Management Plan for The People’s Hall in Nottingham. The Plan set out policies and guidance for the building’s future management, repair, and use. A 2019 Heritage Lottery Fund–supported scheme unfortunately collapsed during the Covid-19 pandemic and, as with so many historic buildings, the continued long-term vacancy of The People’s Hall now poses a real threat to its conservation. The building urgently needs a sustainable new use. Given the Hall’s substantial scale and layout, identifying a viable adaptive re-use presents a significant challenge. The Plan was therefore designed as a practical tool to support informed decision?making about the building and its heritage significance, reviewing realistic options and proposing potential new uses to help secure a viable long?term future.’

‘I would like to express my sincere thanks to my tutors at Birmingham City University for their guidance and support, and to my colleagues at Aspbury Planning Limited for their commitment to me as we continue to strengthen our Heritage Consultancy services. Finally, I am deeply grateful to the Nottingham Historic Buildings Trust for granting me access to this remarkable building—one whose walls, if they could speak, would tell a rich and fascinating story of Nottingham’s social history’.

In addition to the IHBC’s Gus Astley and Booth-Bird award winners, three students have been Commended under the Booth-Bird programme for their Conservation Management Plan-linked submissions.

They include Rosemary James for her CMP ‘Conservation Management Plan: Granary Approximately 5 Metres West of Tanners Farm, Church Lane, Capel, Kent’ andSteve Saunders for his work on ‘The Sustainable Reuse of a Place of Worship: St Giles Church, Carburton, Nottinghamshire’. Both are students of the Conservation of the Historic Environment course at Birmingham University.

Sian McGuirk was also Commendedfor her ‘Conservation Management Plan for the Alterative Adaptive Reuse for Bath Cornmarket’. Sian’s work was undertaken as part of her MSc course on Sustainable Building Conservation at Cardiff University.

The IHBC would like to congratulate all the winners and thank those unsuccessful applicants for entering their work for the Gus Astley Student Awards.

There was a very high standard of submission this year and all entrants have again been offered a free ‘taster’ year of IHBC membership (applies only for those not already members) and a free place at the IHBC’s 2026 Virtual School, to be broadcast from Newcastle on 19 June.

• See more on the Gus Astley Student Award, with the next round of submissions closing 31 August 2026.
• See more background to the previous Awards
• See more on submitting online

For more on the IHBC’s Annual Schools HERE and on the 2026 Newcastle School HERE

This article appears on the IHBC news and blogsite as "IHBC’s 2025 Gus Astley Student Award winners and prizes announced: Jack Parker (Oxford Brookes) receives top Award with £500, and Booth-Bird award to Andrew Pettifor (Birmingham City University), both winning Newcastle School places" dated 24 March 2026.

[edit] Hewing