How vulnerable are our historic buildings to flooding?

More than six million homes and businesses across England are at risk from flooding but what about our heritage buildings – the museums, the manors, the castles, cathedrals and even the pubs?

England’s historic properties could be even more vulnerable, according to flooding resilience experts.

“We just don’t know but it’s high-time we found out,” says Dr Sarah Percival, from Liverpool John Moores University, who is working with Historic England to map their vulnerabilities in the face of heightened 21st century flood risk and climate change.

Houses can be rebuilt but heritage can be irreplaceable and funding research is just the first step in shoring up the nation’s beloved monuments and architecture for future generations.

Marooned Abbey

Dr Percival, from the Liverpool Research Institute for Climate and Sustainability, has begun interviewing organisations with agency in the matter, such as local councils, consultancy firms, the Churches Conservation Trust and dioceses like Gloucester that oversaw the protection of Tewkesbury Abbey, which was famously photographed marooned by flood waters in 2007.

From there, they aim to better understand the particular strengths and weaknesses of traditional buildings and develop guidance for Historic England, specifically, at this stage, in relation to surface water flooding (England’s most prolific flood type).

“It’s not just the materials and the construction, but the surrounding area, the usage, the maintenance, the adaptation - a whole range of factors come into play,” says Sarah.

“At present, it is just not known how resilient different buildings are from different eras. It could even be that they have certain advantages over modern buildings that we could learn from in creating today’s built environment.”

Tested across Liverpool

Field work for the project begins presently at various sites, including Sheffield and along the River Severn, and the team aims to develop a resilience tool which will be tested across Liverpool.

Historic England hopes the research will develop into practical guidance, training, and support for those safeguarding, retrofitting, adapting or administering traditional buildings.

Dr Percival and her assistant Dela Nangir are inviting owners and custodians of historic buildings of all types to take part in an initial questionnaire.

She admits it is very early days: “We are looking at a very complicated picture without knowing what data is available. But we do know there is a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of people out there who think this is overdue.”