Dartmoor conservation project achieves recognition

A conservation project to restore vulnerable barns on Dartmoor has won recognition from the Civic Trust AABC Conservation Awards 2025.

Known as the Dartmoor Historic Rural Agricultural Building Repair Project, this saw the simultaneous repair of 15 agricultural buildings on Dartmoor amid a limited timescale and funding under strict conservation criteria during the Covid period. This project was highly commended by the Civic Trust.

The judges said: “This scheme demonstrates how collaborative efforts, traditional techniques, and community engagement can effectively preserve heritage while delivering tangible benefits to local economies and cultural landscapes.”

This pilot project was a collaboration between national cultural and heritage bodies, government departments, farm owners, conservation architects, specialist consultants, including PCA, and conservation contractors.

Conservation engineering team

PCA specialist conservation engineering team were called in by Jonthan Rhind Architects to undertake structural inspections of several of the historic agricultural barns that had been identified as vulnerable.  

PCA’s Paul Carpenter said: “Our role was to produce individual structural reports on each barn, then outline our findings and recommendations for sensitive conservation repairs, which were subsequently undertaken by specialist conservation contractors. As with most conservation projects, it was a true team effort, and I am delighted everyone has been recognised for their contribution.”

This project had previously won the Heritage Project category of the RICS South West Awards 2024.