At school I enjoyed art, history and archaeology, so conservation was a perfect way of bringing all those elements together. After completing a National Diploma in Conservation and Restoration of Objects at Lincoln College of Art and Design in the early 1990s, I specialised in stone, sculpture and historic buildings by doing a postgraduate course at Bournemouth University \u2013 I loved being active on site and outside. I had a summer job with the masonry team at Winchester Cathedral as a student in 1992, which was really my gateway in, then I worked as a plasterer at Shakespeare\u2019s Globe<\/a> as my first full-time job.<\/p>\n

What are the challenges facing the conservation of Lincoln Cathedral today?<\/h3>\n
Lincoln has a 100-year conservation programme in place, so the repairs are almost never-ending! It\u2019s the only cathedral on Historic England\u2019s Buildings at Risk register, mainly due to the scale of the building and the consequent amount of work required, and the risk of those funding needs not being met. Lincoln doesn\u2019t have the large, wealthy population and high numbers of visitors such as other cathedral cities like York<\/a>, so our income is smaller. Furthermore, although there is a works department to keep the cathedral and our 82 historic properties going, we\u2019re down to half the number of staff we had before the Covid-19 pandemic. We\u2019ve had to slow our works programmes down as a result, but we should be able to start building back up again over the next two to three years, all being well.<\/p>\n

What does an average day look like for you?<\/h3>\n
It\u2019s highly variable. My role covers conservation of the cathedral fabric (primarily stone) and ex-situ sculpture, so one of my primary tasks is to make sure that the rest of the conservation team can keep working on the fabric without any issues \u2013 recording, cleaning and carrying out repairs to the highest possible standards. Sometimes I can be on site looking at work with the team, then back in the office writing up reports, programmes, costings and orders. There can be quite a few meetings to attend as well. Occasionally, I still get to help out with something practical \u2013 from moving sculpture\nto clearing sites. Although I\u2019m generally hands-off, I rarely seem to go home clean!<\/p>\n
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