Context 159 - May 2019

C O N T E X T 1 5 9 : M A Y 2 0 1 9 59 and the fertile inventiveness of the front porch. The quality of the carved detail, in fineWeldon stone, is exquisite. The whole site has a rather haunting atmosphere, torn between being an abandoned ruin and an intact house. It has been the focus of many debates over the decades, in which my project work has played a part. Your favourite place? The Cuillins of Skye, the most magical mountains in Britain, jagged peaks of gabbro, a superbly rough rock under the hand. Your favourite book? Some novels, like Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf, made a deep impression on me as a young man, but these are a distant memory. So it is generally non-fiction for me now. As we are not on a desert island, I’ll have two books. Mark Girouard is probably our best-ever writer on architectural history, and his Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House opened up this special world for me.Who could fail to be inspired: ‘By an unlikely miracle the keep at Bolsover has survived into this century as an almost untouched expression in stone of the lost world of Elizabethan chivalry and romances.’ It has been my good fortune to work on several of these extraordinary buildings: Bolsover, the two Hardwick Halls and Sutton Scarsdale. The most-thumbed book that I own is Margaret Wood’s The English Medieval House . Published in 1965, its treatment of timber- framed buildings is now dated, but for medieval stone buildings it remains unsurpassed, and hugely informative. What do you do in your spare time? The study of historic buildings takes up most of my time outside work. Besides many visits for general interest, I undertake detailed recording, survey and analysis of secular buildings up to c1800, and publish articles in historical journals. Vernacular houses have been a particular focus over many years, but in the last decade I have been drawn into the study of early aisled halls and chamber blocks of the 12th-13th centuries. Piecing together the historical development of these often fragmentary buildings is deeply fascinating. What organisations are you a member of? RICS (building surveyor), Vernacular Architecture Group (treasurer), Fellow of Society of Antiquaries, Association for Studies in the Conservation of Historic Buildings (former journal editor), SPAB, Society of Architectural Historians (GB), Ancient Monuments Society, Construction History Society, Georgian Group, British Archaeological Association, Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, Rutland Local History and Record Society, Great Easton Local History Society (chair). A lot of journals to read! Which one issue would you particularly like the IHBC to campaign on? Fight the good fight against cuts in conservation officer posts and the historic environment planning service. And VAT on listed build- ings, of course. Nick Hill is national conservation projects manager at Historic England. The Cuillins on a still morning: the most magical mountains in Britain (Photo: Paul Lucas, Wikimedia)