A scholarship from SPAB set me on the course that has defined my life’s work, says Martin Ashley
During my final thesis year at Kingston Polytechnic I met the legendary Monica Dance, who was Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings for 50 years. From that point my career path was ordained, and I was soon privileged to undertake a SPAB scholarship during 1976, travelling Britain for six months studying, living, and breathing the repair and conservation of historic buildings. It was a transformational experience. With a couple of co-scholars and clutching AR Powys’ ‘Repair of Ancient Buildings’ we spent weeks with professional practitioners, traditional materials producers, and most importantly with extraordinary specialists and craftspeople whose abiding common feature was a passion for their trade, craft and legacy in the context of the built heritage of Britain.
Apart from the sheer wonder of visiting stone quarries still working after centuries in operation, hands-on experience of thatching, leaded glazing, dry-stone walling, and much more, there were moments of unforgettable and lasting influence. One such occasion was with the fine conservationist John Schofield, who sat us down in a small medieval church deep in the countryside and read us passages from Ruskin’s ‘Seven Lamps of Architecture’. John had recently mounted an exhibition in London called ‘The Gentle Touch’ which celebrated traditional materials, finishes, and the acquired complexity and patina of age. Part of his thesis was that “history lives in the surface of old buildings” and in the marks left by craftspeople over the centuries, which is a concept that has never left me.
high-quality contextual design can sit well in the context of historic buildings and their settings”
After my scholarship I was lucky to be employed in the Norwich office of Purcell Miller & Tritton. I spent a remarkable five years with Peter Miller working upon Ely Cathedral, where he was Surveyor of the Fabric, and with Michael Morrison on Wimpole Hall and Oxburgh Hall for the National Trust. My long and happy time with the practice was effectively a continuing SPAB scholarship, and taught me the practicalities of putting into effect the philosophical lessons that I had learnt from the SPAB in the context of the needs of the building owners and users. It became clear to me that the role of the architect who works with existing buildings is a two-way-street – to interpret the needs of the building to its users, but also to enable the needs of the users within the context of the building. Working with Peter and John was humbling: their depth of knowledge of the buildings in their care, and their abilities and skills in working with the client organisations and contracting teams were deeply impressive.
A recent SPAB scholar gets hands-on experience of blacksmithing with Owlsworth IJP
I was intrigued to learn that for the designers and craftspeople the concept of ‘excellence’ was a matter of pride; we can see now whether previous cycles of work to buildings have been carried out with excellence, or not. Working with old buildings shows that sadly there are many examples of the latter, and of specifying and detailing mistakes that our predecessors made that we must take care not to repeat in order to leave a good legacy.
I also came to understand that excellence in contemporary design is compatible with old buildings, and that high-quality contextual design can sit well in the context of historic buildings and their settings. This is the ongoing chronology of change which we love in our old buildings, and which the SPAB Scholarship taught me to recognise, understand, and celebrate.
I founded Martin Ashley Architects with colleagues in 1994, and feel grateful that the abiding common feature of passion for the buildings and crafts that I first witnessed during my SPAB scholarship, and which continued through my time with Purcell, is shared by my colleagues now, and by virtually all of those with whom we collaborate in our work on historic buildings. It is this striving for collaborative excellence towards conserving Britain’s heritage, to the crafts and trades employed in its repair, and to the altering and equipping of old buildings for ongoing beneficial use in the twenty-first century that stems directly from lessons learnt during the SPAB Scholarship.
