C O N T E X T 1 7 1 : M A R C H 2 0 2 2 49 Vox pop Michael Foley Who has been your greatest inspiration? Hugh Perks. I first met him in an interview for an HNC building surveying course at Canterbury College in 2011. He said: ‘I’m going to teach how to survey by using your senses rather than relying on meters.’ He did, and that included using the sense of taste.You should see the look people’s faces when I sometimes pick off a piece of building fabric, put it in my mouth and chew it over. His lecture on lime in 2011 changed the course of my life. Hugh, who died in 2020, was a giant of a man, both physically and intellectually. He was the most accomplished human being I had ever met and a conservation legend. What has been your best idea? To get an old sailing boat, fix it up and go off sailing. I had a 10-year run where I would work seven days a week in the winter to be able to work on my boat and go sailing during the summers. What would you like to have been if you had not become a conservationist? A professional yachtsman. I was working towards this but the crash of 2008 put a stop to it, so it was back to the building site for me. How do you reply when at a party someone asks what you do? ‘As much as possible.’ I don’t define myself by what I do for a living. What is the biggest frustration in your job? People involved in the game who do not know one end of an old brick from another. I pull my hair out at so-called professionals who can not distinguish between traditional and modern construction materials, technology and design. I like to remind people that having worked at some level on a listed building is not a conservation qualification. What would you like to be doing in five years’ time? Sailing my boat around the British Isles after taking on some staff and handing over the firm to younger and ambitious practice partners. I would take my laptop with me and do some work ‘from home’ on the boat. What is your favourite building? West Dean House. I have had the privilege of staying there ten times while completing their residential building conservation master classes (BCMs) to gain the professional development diploma in historic building conservation and repair. Anybody who has stayed there will know that this is Michael Foley refitting the weather vane on the Grade II* listed Clock House on Ramsgate Harbour
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