The RICHeS team were pleased to visit Ranger’s House, a Georgian villa on the edge of Greenwich Park in London, to meet with the team delivering the RICHeS-funded project Creating a national integrated mobile and fixed lab for collections, historic buildings and sites. Led by Dr David Thickett, Senior Conservation Scientist at English Heritage Trust and delivered in collaboration with Historic England, this project is developing a nationwide ecosystem of mobile and fixed laboratories to support heritage science, particularly in response to the challenges posed by climate change. Focus areas include materials degradation, building performance and sustainability.
This project builds on investment in the English Heritage Trust: Conservation and Heritage Science Facility from the AHRC Capability for Collections (CapCo) fund. The new project integrates this existing infrastructure into the wider RICHeS programme, enhancing facilities at both Ranger’s House and Fort Cumberland, while introducing mobile capabilities to extend access to cutting-edge tools across the UK.
Enhancing facilities and delivering mobile tools
During the visit, the RICHeS team were introduced to the suite of analytical instruments being acquired and deployed. We were delighted to hear how the project team has successfully leveraged RICHeS funding to secure additional equipment. Among the tools now available are spectroscopy instruments, including near infrared systems funded by AHRC CapCo. Spectroscopy enables researchers to analyse how materials interact with electromagnetic radiation, helping to better understand the composition and condition of heritage objects and buildings. Alongside this was the newly acquired portable Raman spectrometer, one of several mobile tools available, greatly enhances the capacity for in-situ analysis. These portable facilities, provided by English Heritage, will enable researchers to carry out heritage science across a range of UK sites, improving access and responsiveness to emerging conservation needs.
Other new and enhanced equipment includes:
- An acoustic emission system to detect micro-damage in materials
- Blower doors and CO₂ injection systems for building air exchange testing
- A compact X-ray diffraction system for analysing corrosion and protective films
- An ion chromatography autosampler for monitoring glass deterioration
The team also have a new portable FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) for non-invasive analysis of organic materials and thin films. This is an analytical technique that identifies the chemical composition of materials within artefacts by analysing their interaction with infrared light.
These tools, some of which are portable to take directly to heritage sites, exemplify the RICHeS programme’s aim to broaden access to advanced scientific resources for collections care, building conservation and research.
A distributed investment across the UK
This project exemplifies the RICHeS distributed infrastructure model, with investment supporting both mobile and fixed laboratory capabilities across multiple sites. The majority of the portable equipment is based at Ranger’s House in London, forming a hub for mobile heritage science tools that can be deployed across the UK. These mobile facilities allow researchers to conduct high-quality analysis directly at heritage sites enhancing flexibility, accessibility and responsiveness.
Meanwhile, there is some fixed laboratory infrastructure located at Fort Cumberland in Portsmouth. Recently, the RICHeS team had the opportunity to view a demonstration of the newly installed Scanning Electron Microscope with Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (SEM-EDS). This instrument combines high-resolution surface imaging with elemental analysis, offering powerful capabilities for detailed materials investigation. As a fixed facility, it complements the mobile tools by providing a base for more intensive, high-precision analysis.
The project team also work closely with the Cardiff University Perfform project team, that shares a focus on building performance and climate resilience in the historic environment. These partnerships highlight the strength of a coordinated, distributed infrastructure bringing together specialist expertise, advanced equipment and collaborative research to strengthen the heritage science sector nationwide.
Dr David Thickett shares:
“I am delighted we have been able to share in this, the most significant investment in heritage science in decades and will be able to dramatically increase research in the sector“