About Nottinghamshire Building Preservation Trust

The Nottingham Building Preservation Trust (NBPT) is a not-for-profit charity based in Nottinghamshire, which restores heritage buildings in order to preserve them for future uses. The trust was founded in February 1967 and has successfully restored many buildings, both in the City and in the wider County.

The Revolving Fund forms the basis of the Trust’s activities. This involves, when all other means have failed, the purchase of historic buildings which are at risk from neglect or development and their repair and restoration. The next stage is to carry out a feasibility study to determine the possibilities of repair and restoration and to find an on-going sustainable new use for the building. The restored building is then sold and any profit ploughed back into the Revolving Fund.

Prominent members of the Trust have included Prof. Maurice Barley, Harry Johnson, Ernest Lester, Jack Lowe, Gordon Boylin, John Severn, Dr. Norman Summers, Neville Hoskins and Keith Train.

What we do

Asher Lane Ruddington after renovation, a bright white building
Asher Lane Ruddington after renovation

Conservation

We purchase, conserve and find new uses for vulnerable and at-risk buildings.

View our current and past projects

Robin-Hood-Hotel-1950s, black and white photo of 2-storey hotel building
Robin Hood Hotel, Newark 1950s

Monitoring

We monitor the situation of vulnerable buildings, providing technical advice and applying pressure to achieve satisfactory conclusions.

Black and white photo of Bingham manor house with trees in foreground
Bingham Manor House

Advocacy

We monitor and comment on planning applications.   Where proposals might adversely affect a historic building our volunteer technical experts provide comments on the significance of vulnerable heritage assets in our county.  Our technical experts are available to all owners of historic buildings within Nottinghamshire.

Man and woman demonstrating how to make bricks
Special Brick-making Demonstration by Mathias Restoration at Southwell MInster

Promoting Historic Building Craft

We raise the profile of historic craftmanship and building techniques by providing skills fairs to promote these crafts and provide training.

Four people stood posing with a certificate
Harry Johnson Award Presentation

Recognising and Rewarding

We recognize and reward excellence in restoration work on historic buildings and innovative new designs that enhance their local environment in the form of The Harry Johnson Award which we have run for the last 43 years in partnership with the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

The Harry Johnson Award

Black and white photo of ow of houses- Windles Square
Windles Square, Calverton – Civic Trust Award Winner

Archives

We have a wealth of  archival material that can be accessed free of charge by the public.

A woman making a tile in front of a group of children
Heritage Skills Kids Demo – Mediaeval Tile Making with Karen Slade of the Company of Artisans

Events

We run a range of events for our members and for the general public.

See our events pages for more details.