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Book Review: The Lanchester Legacy: A Trilogy of Lanchester Works

Although Britain's railway heritage is arguably the richest and superficially the best cared for in the world it is also lamentably insecure as far as the long-term survival of many of its more significant features is concerned. The priorities of this collection, the outcome of a conference held in York in 1994, are therefore of the utmost importance: the establishment of a working definition of 'railway heritage' and the setting of priorities for future conservation. The opening section sets an ambitious but achievable agenda for the future the director of the National Museum of Science and Industry, Neil Cossons, argues that, while there are certainly special difficulties associated with railways, essentially the same reasons and fundamental principles should apply to their conservation as to any other aspect of our heritage. Subsequent chapters largely reflect this philosophy, offering appraisals of the historical significance of aspects of the railways' built environment, detailed studies of the principles and practice of railway conservation, and a brief look at the problems posed by disused engineering structures. Inevitably some of the more descriptive of these contributions have already dated a little, but all are useful reminders of what can be achieved. Most of the chapters employ a fairly narrow definition of railway heritage. With only a few exceptions it is equated, roughly speaking, with buildings and structures. In a way this is a good thing, for preservationists have paid too much attention to locomotives and rolling stock, arguably to the detriment of the public's understanding of railway history. But railways are an excellent example of a socio-technical system, and if one is going to insist, as so many in this volume rightly do, on the importance of context to a proper understanding of artefacts, then all aspects of that system must fall within the definition of 'heritage'. Just who should be involved in setting priorities for future conservation is not altogether clear, although the rapidly changing structure of the railway industry makes this a difficult task for anyone to contemplate. Some authors are critical of the efforts of the voluntary sector, but, taken as a whole, the book pays rather sparse attention to the potential of the preservationists. This is a pity: since public and corporate funding will never provide enough resources to achieve everything that is desirable, a considerable measure of co-operation between 'official' and 'unofficial' sectors is surely necessary. It is a weakness of the volume as a whole that not one of the contributors can claim to speak for the latter conserving the railway heritage is too important to be left to the professionals alone.