52 CONTEXT 182 : DECEMBER 2024 to save heritage as I really value the contribution it makes to our places. It is never about the individual asset for me, it is the contribution to place; however, I want us to work with ecological focus to restore our decimated countryside more than anything else. What would you like to be doing in five years’ time? Driving landscape-scale recovery of our countryside and settlements, representing our 21st-century response to the nature crisis. What is your favourite building? I spent a fair amount of time working on Trentham Tower on the Sandon Estate in Staffordshire. The tower used to be part of Trentham Hall (now famous mostly just for the gardens and shopping) but was moved to Sandon as a folly. It was lucky to benefit from funding via Natural England and was on the heritage-at-risk register. It is the context of the tower that I love: its story of change; the ridiculous amount of mud that was generated around it during the project to repair it, and overcoming this issue (all good fun!); the fact that it is on a public right of way so I can still visit it; its intervisibility with other features on the estate, including the moated site (original house), current beautiful house, the church, the icehouse, the limekiln, all within lovely designed parkland. Your favourite place? I grew up in Tunbridge Wells in Kent with parents who loved interiors. They bought a scout hut when I was nine. It had no kitchen, bathroom or liveable spaces, it was just a lovely double-fronted, tile-hung building in an elevated position, overlooking a famous sandstone outcrop (similar to High Rocks) in the shape of a Toad (‘Toad Rock’) and a pub. This landscape’s many hollows and escapes comprised a wonderful playground as a child, but I loved the place as a whole and the feeling of such a strange landscape surrounding a beautiful building. My parents designed all of the floors in the house, were bold with colours and the hallway was hand-painted by my uncle, who was a lead conservator at Brighton Pavilion. He created a harlequin design where the diamonds fragmented and drifted off from the geometric pattern, and warped and lifted into the space of the stairwell. After they moved, out my mum returned to pick up post, and was horrified to find the restored parquet floor carpeted over, walls knocked through and the hallway painted magnolia. Your favourite book? His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. I named my first child Aurora after the Northern Lights and have always been captivated by this wonderful story. What do you do in your spare time? As a working mother of three I don’t think this is a thing. I love to run and I shoe-horn in a 5k whenever I can. What organisations are you a member of? Chartered Institute for Archaeologists; Landscape Institute; I gained my full IHBC membership after a couple of attempts (being dyslexic I found the application fairly impenetrable); chair of IHBC West Midlands branch. Which one issue would you particularly like the IHBC to campaign on? Nature. We are well placed to bridge the heritage and nature divide. Yes, it is our job to champion the conservation of heritage and, in particular, the heritage values and settings of buildings of historic interest. However, we are superbly placed and capable of supporting the protection of nature through raising our own awareness of the plight of habitats and species, and of nature depletion in this country. Instead of just ticking the biodiversity net gain box, let’s recognise the value of historic buildings and landscapes as habitats and carefully consider projects that remove or reduce the nature value of these features. We could also look more favourably on projects where the overall aim is to restore nature, particularly in designed landscapes. Imogen Wood is senior national consultant for heritage and climate with the National Trust. Trentham Tower, saved by being moved to the Sandon Estate in Staffordshire as a folly
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