48 C O N T E X T 1 2 6 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 2 Vox pop Alison Davidson is head of historic environment at Winchester City Council. Who has been your greatest inspiration? The biggest and earliest influence on the current direction of my career was Mike Clark, until recently conservation officer of Hampshire County Council. At the age of 23 I joined Rushmoor Borough Council for what I imagined was going to be a temporary job as the planning technician – the lowest rung of the ladder. I was really looking for a job in the landscape industry, which is what I was originally trained in. I did not think this job was really what I was looking for but took it to help pay the mortgage. I found myself eventually dealing with everything associated with conservation, and a few things not normally associated, including nature conservation and ecology, tree work, landscape conditions on planning permissions, environmental improvements and urban regeneration. I learned on the job, which involved frequently calling on Mike’s expertise as the county council support. I was enthralled by his relaxed but detailed advice, and he inspired me to learn more. I later undertook the MSc Historic Building Conservation course at Bournemouth University.The rest is history. What has been your best idea? To give blood for the first time and then regularly.When I die, I hope that if I have left no other lasting mark on the planet, at least I shall know that I have saved countless other lives. What would you like to have been if you had not become a conservationist? I really fancied being a lady gardener like Gertrude Jekyll. I loved gardening as a child and ended up at Writtle Agricultural College in Essex studying amenity horticulture. This is the college that Geoff Hamilton and Peter Seabrook studied at: as a youngster I would watch Gardeners World avidly. Agricultural college was great – 10 men for every girl and you got to drive tractors. I became known as ‘the girl with the white boots’, as the only steel toe-capped boots I could buy in my size at the time were white cannery boots. Once qualified, I soon discovered that at the time (mid 1980s) I could not earn a decent living in horticulture, as most the industry paid very low agricultural wages. My move away from horticulture into planning and conservation was one of those chance, unplanned things. I would still love to go back into rose growing, landscape maintenance or nursery work. The prospect is very unlikely, however, and I am more likely to end up in a kitchen somewhere making cakes, which is another source of deep enjoyment. A high-class tea shop which serves tea in bone-china tea cups and cakes on cake stands on tables laid with damask tablecloths; tinkly piano music in the background and great service. A smallholding would also be on the list. At home we keep chickens and rare-breed pigs, and a good allotment. We make jam and cordials from the hedgerow and eat seasonally. It is great when we are able to present a whole meal to friends and say that we grew or reared everything on the plate. How do you reply when at a party someone asks what you do? I say I head up a team of really talented and committed people who aim to protect our heritage through the legislative systems we currently have. Most people have heard of listed buildings, conservation areas and archaeology.When I say that I work inWinchester, they normally say how wonderful that job must be. They would be right, but it is not glamorous and can be extremely stressful, especially when people are so attached to their own ideas for so-called improvements to their homes, which in our eyes destroy the very historic interest that should be valued. Many people have a very shortterm view on their surroundings and are influenced heavily by the fashion of the day. Some forget or simply do not care that their buildings were
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