Further Reading on Lime

For written information about lime, look at the list of publications about lime on this site which can be ordered on-line, many of which are not expensive, non-technical and may be of interest. There is also much information about building limes on the World Wide Web.  Below is a list of some that we found of interest. The BLF is not responsible for the content of other sites.

• General
• Conservation
• Historical

General

The lime spectrum is described in a paper by Ian Brocklebank, reproduced by permission of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation.

The Building Conservation website has articles on many topics including lime (mortars, renders, limewash, etc), masonry, plasterwork and stucco.

There are websites for specialist interests such as the Centre for Alternative Technology, Earth Building UK, the War Memorial Trust and The Milestone Society.

Conservation

There is good background information on the Church of England Church Care and Scotland’s Churches Trust Maintain Your Church websites; information on churches is relevant for other building types.

Books on conservation are listed on the IHBC website, at www.buildingconservation.comand the on-line bookshops of the the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, Historic England and Historic Scotland.

Historical

The development of lime as a building material is described in Building limes in the United Kingdom by Paul Livesey (this paper won the Institution of Civil Engineers Howard medal for the best construction materials paper in 2011).

There is an extensive bibliography on the Preservation of Lime Mortars and Plastersproduced by the Getty Conservation Institute. This is pretty comprehensive but you should bear in mind the snowballing volume of literature since March 2003 when it was compiled.

A comprehensive listing of authors can be found in Some Writers on Lime and Cement, by Charles Spackman, W. Heffer & Sons Ltd, Cambridge, 1929, available for reference in the Concrete Information Limited library, British Cement Association and legal deposit libraries.

There are also research papers on-line.  These include Claire Gapper on British Renaissance plasterwork.