Anthony Goode Award at the summer working party

We are so grateful to everyone who attended our working party this summer. We like to think all the volunteers and specialists are filled with the working party spirit, which allows a small group of amazing people to achieve a tremendous amount in a short space of time.

Talented craftsman Anthony Goode was a great SPAB supporter and he never missed a working party. After Anthony died in 2018, Joe Orsi, a fellow member and craftsperson created an award to honour him, formed from Anthony’s pointing irons. This is presented at our summer working party to the person who best embodied the working party spirit – a warm mixture of generosity, dedication and enthusiasm.

This year it was awarded to John Russell. John is a carpenter based in East Sussex. John is a expert and a brilliant teacher, and under his careful guidance volunteers got the chance to try traditional timber hewing and trestle sawing, some of the most popular activities of the week spent at our Old House Project and neighbouring Boxley Abbey.

John in the medieval barn at Boxley Abbey. Credit: Graham Carlow

John says: “I feel very touched and grateful to have been awarded the Anthony Goode Award this year. He was such a lovely man; so warm, approachable, and positive about sharing his knowledge and skills with all sorts of people at SPAB working parties. So I am especially honoured to be associated with his memory.

I remember talking to Anthony about the importance of giving young people a chance to get their hands dirty. He thought everyone should try some hard and skilled construction/conservation work at some point in their careers – to give them a physical and intuitive understanding and appreciation for old buildings and the astonishing labours of their makers. And I hope that in my small way I am also helping to do this too when working with all the enthusiastic SPAB volunteers at Boxley and elsewhere.”

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John receiving his award in the working party campsite at Boxley Abbey. Credit: SPAB