"Drips come suddenly and do great damage", said England's most revered architect Sir Christopher Wren. Many of the expensive repairs that have to be carried out on historic buildings result from a lack of basic regular maintenance. For example, an outbreak of dry rot can result from a blocked rainwater gutter which has not been cleared of autumn leaves. The Dutch created the excellent Monumentenwacht to address this problem. In each province of the Netherlands teams of two trained maintenance workers visit historic properties once or twice a year to do basic chores such as cleaning gutters and downpipes, fixing missing slates and tiles, replacing perished lead or zinc in the valley gutters and inspecting the roof voids for outbreaks of rot and woodworm.

This is an initiative we need in the UK. Currently we are locked into the crisis management of often wasteful and destructive repairs programmes; we need to move onto crisis prevention through maintenance. SAVE has been working with others to establish Monument Watch UK. The organisation has recently appointed a Project Director and is now looking for owners, conservation professionals, craftsmen, local authorities and any other interested parties to participate in pilot projects. It is essential that the Government, English Heritage, Cadw and Historic Scotland express their strong support for a project which, in due course, could lead to the entire historic building stock in the UK being bettered cared for.