Marsh Charitable Trust – Marsh Award for Heritage Conservation in Action

Marsh Award for Heritage Conservation in Action

This Award recognises the achievements of conservators and heritage scientists working to enhance public engagement with historic objects and collections. Engagement may be delivered through the real-time interpretation of the conservation work being carried out either in-situ or online, or through educational programmes linked to the conservation project.

The Award is open to individual conservators and heritage scientists or teams of conservation professionals.

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Durham University, Shakespeare Recovered 2025

In 2024 the Shakespeare Recovered project confronted the conservation challenge of the Durham Folio and, through an inclusive decision-making process, chose light stabilisation rather than a complete rebinding, prioritising the book’s materiality and visible history over restoring a fully readable state. The team engaged a wide range of stakeholders to determine what was valued about the Folio and how it should be treated, and that consultation directly shaped treatment choices so the physical evidence of theft and vandalism would be retained rather than erased. Stabilisation now allows controlled production of the Folio for teaching and research while enabling public exhibition that frames the object as archaeological evidence of its own history.

The project’s exhibition placed the Folio at the heart of conversations about conservation and heritage science, using a dramatic 360° display of detached leaves and an interactive iPad game that puts visitors in conservators’ decision-making roles and exposes competing stakeholder perspectives. The team also secured funding for a miniature historical printing press and ran a science festival stand where some 2,000 children aged 7-11 learned about the making of the Folio by printing a Shakespeare portrait of their own. Outreach activities, a symposium on ethics and decision-making, student workshops, and digital resources extended the impact, attracting younger audiences and thousands of participants, and establishing a replicable, community-centred roadmap for ethical conservation practice that leaves a lasting legacy for Durham and the conservation profession.

Previous Winners

Lilian Amwada Ochieng, Kabernet Museum (Kenya)

Lilian has run a project to restore a traditional Pokot dress and headgear which had suffered deterioration due to being in storage for many years. She collaborated closely with the local Pokot and Tugen community elders throughout the restoration, taking on their invaluable insights into traditional conservation practices and the cultural significance of these items. The restored objects are now on display in an exhibition at the museum, where the local community have been able to see a piece of their cultural heritage on prominent display. Staff at the museum have received conservation training as part of the project, which has secured a lasting legacy of conservation practices at the museum for the future. Lilian also shared the results of the project online and ran educational sessions alongside the restoration for local schools so that the information gleaned from the project could be shared as widely as possible. Her work has increased visibility of conservation work happening at the museum and has also increased local interest in the museum. Lilian’s collaboration with the local indigenous community throughout the project has been invaluable and has demonstrated a collective effort to achieve the best results for heritage preservation.

Mary Evans

Spalding Gentlemen’s Society has an extensive collection, containing several important items including scientific instruments, a library and an archive. The collection has never been formally reviewed and conservation work has been minimal up until now. The museum is fully volunteer run, and is looking to progress and extend their reach to a wider audience, despite having limited funds in order to do so. Mary has worked, as a volunteer, for just over a year at the museum, encouraging people to engage with heritage (particularly those who would not normally do so) and providing education and training in conservation skills.

The project to conserve the collection has boosted the wellbeing of local people who have gotten involved, and has been highlighted on social media to help promote the value of conservation in preserving heritage objects. Mary and her team of volunteers have produced short films of them taking part in conservation activities, demonstrating their skills and engaging even more people with the act of conservation. Mary gives freely of her time to teach others about conservation, whilst never losing sight of her main aim to conserve and protect the heritage of the collection. This is an ongoing project, and the hope is that many more people will take part in conservation activities to bring the collection back to life.