Conferences
The Group's conferences are where members meet to study buildings and discuss their findings. Conferences are open to all members.
Spring Conferences
In the spring we meet in a different part of the country each year to visit a selection of buildings in the local vernacular tradition. Local experts are on hand to explain the background and more experienced members help others to interpret them. In the evenings, lectures and discussions allow the day's findings to be explored further.
Recent spring conference venues:
- 2000 - Staffordshire
- 2001 - Suffolk
- 2002 - Ireland-Dublin
- 2003 - Essex
- 2004 - Yorkshire
- 2005 - North Wales
- 2006 - Somerset
- 2007 - Cambridgeshire
- 2008 - Devon
- 2009 - Jersey
Future spring conferences include:
- 2010 - Durham/Northumbria 6-10 April
- 2011 - Oxford 12-16 April
- 2012 - East Midlands
- 2013 - South-West Wales
- 2014 - Gloucestershire
Spring Conference 2010
The 2010 VAG Spring Conference will be based at St Aidan's College at the University of Durham on 6-10 April 2010. During the day members will tour the locality, visiting and interpreting lesser traditional buildings; lectures and discussions will be held in the evenings. The conference will include visits to Durham City, south towards the river Tees, isolated manors and villages including Heighington, North Pennines and Weardale, and Newcastle upon Tyne and Tynedale. There may also be some optional visits on Saturday. The evening speakers will be Martin Roberts, Adrian Green, and Peter Ryder.
Spring Conference Bursaries
Bursaries are offered each year to enable a registered student or a professional in the early years of his or her career to attend the spring conference. Details on how to apply for a bursary for the 2010 Spring Conference are now available.
Winter Conferences
The winter conference takes a theme of current interest and explores it in depth through papers given by experts in the field.
Recent winter conference themes include:
- 1999 - The Use of Tree-ring Dating for Research
- 2000 - Vernacular Architecture and Related Fields
- 2001 - The Transition from the Medieval to the Early-Modern House Revisited
- 2002 - News From the Regions
- 2003 - VAG 50th Anniversary Conference: Celebration and Speculation
- 2004 - Vernacular Buildings and the Church
- 2005 - Buildings, Rebuildings and Vernacular Thresholds
- 2006 - Houses of Mud and Earth
- 2007 - Towns and Town Houses 1000-1700
- 2008 - Marginal Architecture
- 2009 - The Polite Threshold
Winter Conference 2010
Dates and venue are being finalised and details will be published here when available.
Winter Conference Bursaries
Bursaries are offered each year to enable a registered student or a professional in the early years of his or her career to attend the winter conference. Details on how to apply for a bursary for the next winter conference will be published here in due course.
Oxford Weekend Schools
The Group contributes to an annual weekend school held in Oxford and run by the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education. It is open to the public and topics have included:
- The Vernacular Workshop - from craft to industry, 1400-1900
- Housing for the Masses, 1800-2000
- Diffusion and Invention - vernacular building in England and the New World
- Estate Building: The Impact of Estates on the Built Landscape
- Vernacular Interiors in the British Tradition
- Markets and Market Places
The next weekend school, on the topic of Medieval Domestic Cultures, will be held on 24-26 September 2010. Full details are available on the OUDCE web pages.
Tip: if all the residential places on the weekend school are already taken, you may be able to find alternative student accommodation in Oxford at various prices via budgetstayuk.
