Two obituaries for Julian Prideaux, the National Trust’s ‘Mr Fixit’

The Daily Telegraph looks back at the life of a senior figure in the National Trust who led the triumphant restoration of Uppark in Sussex after the fire of 1989.

Julian Prideaux, who has died aged 82, spent nearly all his career at the National Trust, rising to be Deputy Director-General and Secretary from 1997 until his retirement in 2002.

More the power behind the throne than star of the show, he oversaw an increasing professionalism in the Trust’s management of land during a time of exceptional growth in both membership and property, and steered the Trust calmly through a series of crises.

The first catastrophe came in 1989, when Uppark, one of Britain’s finest William and Mary houses, high on the Sussex Downs, was gutted by fire. Its restoration was the largest and most complex ever attempted by the Trust, and it was Prideaux, as the Trust’s chief agent, who led the recovery, first negotiating with lawyers and insurance brokers (even appearing in the High Court) to secure the funds needed, then working with Peter Pearce, the Trust agent assigned to the project, to harness a vast range of contractors, craftsmen and experts.

Scraps of wallpaper were traced to their original manufacturers in France; the main staircase was reconstructed from a single surviving step and riser; freehand plasterwork was recreated in lime plaster strengthened with goat’s hair.

The ceiling of the Staircase Hall at Uppark was recreated in lime plaster and goat hair with virtually no original material.

The Daily Telegraph’s Hugh Massingberd feared he would find “dear old Uppark” feeling like a fake, but “looking around the subtly faded decoration of such splendid interiors… it is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between what is new and what is old,” he wrote. “The hackneyed post-Second-World-War whinge of country-house buffs that ‘you simply can’t find the craftsmen today’ can finally be put to rest.”

The main staircase at Uppark was reconstructed from a single surviving step and riser.

The Times recalls how Prideaux was known as the National Trust’s ‘Mr Fixit’ and describes the near-miraculous restoration of Uppark:

Anyone walking along the South Downs near South Harting on August 30, 1989 would have seen one of Britain’s finest 17th-century mansions burning down. The blaze was caused by a workman’s blowtorch just before completion of repairs to the lead roof, all but destroying the first and attic floors of Uppark, a handsome William and Mary house that had been completed for Ford Grey (later the 1st Earl of Tankerville) in 1690.

In this and many other crises, the National Trust called for its redoubtable land agent Julian Prideaux, known as “Mr Fixit”. Six years later the same ramblers would have been forgiven for thinking they had seen a mirage after walking past Uppark, perfectly restored to its former grandeur inside and out.

The NT-owned property could have remained a burnt-out shell had it not been for Prideaux’s patience and emollience in thorny negotiations with insurers (who eventually agreed to pay for the restoration). Prideaux appeared in the High Court to settle the title, and worked with Peter Pearce, the Trust agent, to assemble the vast numbers of contractors, craftsmen and experts who rebuilt the structure, rescued chandeliers and traced the provenance of wallpaper and other interiors to their original sources so that like for like could be procured. Nothing on such a scale at a National Trust property had been attempted before and the result was acclaimed worldwide, setting the standard for contemporary restoration and helping to revive many almost lost crafts.

The restoration of Uppark was acclaimed worldwide and helped revive many crafts which were nearly lost.