Context 159 - May 2019

58 C O N T E X T 1 5 9 : M A Y 2 0 1 9 Vox pop Nick Hill Who has been your greatest inspiration? Life seems to be more about perspiration than inspiration these days. But going back to the beginning, my interest in buildings was inspired by my close friend Bruce Buckingham, a student architect in Houston, Texas. My focus up to that point had been very much in the world of intellect and ideas, with my university studies of classics, then social sciences. I worked with Bruce in his carpentry business, and he sparked off a fascination with the material world, and how buildings get put together. That engagement with physical fabric has never left me. What has been your best idea? I designed and built (with a green- oak carpenter) an extension to our house, with a cruck-framed structure inside a stone and thatch shell.We had a roof-raising party on midsummer’s day in 1992 to erect the frame, with a barrel of beer. The great curved oak cruck blades and arch-braces surround me every day, and continue to give a deep sense of satisfaction. What would you like to have been if you had not become a conservationist? I was a keen mountaineer when I was young, and worked briefly in an outdoor education centre. I still love getting out in the hills, but I am glad I chose a career path in historic buildings. Mountains are better as an escape, not for work. How do you reply when at a party someone asks what you do? I manage projects to repair historic buildings. Currently, I am working on a £25 million project to rescue Shrewsbury Flax Mill, the first iron-framed building in the world. What is the biggest frustration in your job? I manage not too badly on the frustration front, as most of my project work is under my own control. On a wider front, the endless cycle of disruptive reorganisation is depressing. It is a political disease affecting so many parts of the public sector, though the historic environment has escaped lightly in comparison with health or education. What would you like to be doing in five years’ time? Major historic building rescue projects often take a long time to come to fruition, and I hope I will be seeing some end results. At Apethorpe Hall, I led our 10-year repair project up to 2014, but the fit-out and reoccupation works by the new owners are only just getting under way. I started on our project at Shrewsbury Flax Mill in 2014, and it is due for completion in 2021, which we hope will transform the site’s future. And then there’s the next project… What is your favourite building? I live on the stone belt of east Leicestershire and am surrounded by beautiful old buildings. Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire, the great half-ruined Elizabethan country house, has been a particular favourite over many years. Its central courtyard is an extraordinary space, surrounded by the earliest giant-order pilasters in England The north front of Kirby Hall, seen from the forecourt (Photo: DeFacto, Wikimedia)