Interview with Darren, the Brick layer

18 January 2011

 

How did you find out about the project?
My wife found it, actually. When it snowed, I went to work at Asda, because there was no other work happening in that weather. So when it came to February time, I told her to start looking for jobs for me, because she works in an office. And she just rang me up one day and said "I've found a really good one, shall I apply for it?" And I said "Yeah, send my CV off to them." And the ball just started rolling from there.

What made you want to get involved?
I like things that are new and interesting. I find being a builder very, very boring. When I saw this, looking for a bricklayer, even though it was still bricklaying, it was something very different. Loved the idea of doing something different for six months.

Why do you think they chose you?
Probably because of my good looks. [Laughs] I dunno, probably just chattiness. I tend to chat a lot. I have a good laugh on site as well. It was probably that.

You all had to live on site in caravans. How was that?
Different! But it was fun, I really enjoyed it. I was sharing with Tim, and he made life down there pretty good - he's a techno geek. We had Sky in both bedrooms and the living room. We had X Boxes as well. He just made it fun. We were there for six months, we thought we'd just make it home.

Did you all get on well?
Yeah, I think we did. Obviously when we first started there were teething problems. Everyone was self employed, so we're all used to being our own bosses. Everyone had their own ideas of how the job should be run, which led to a few personality clashes at the start. But after that we all found a way to work together, and we just let Jim run it and listened to him.

Was there anyone you got really close to?
The ones I was really close to were Ben, Tim and Kevin. Jim was never really at the caravans, whereas the rest of us lived together and had dinner and everything. We got on really well - I'm still in touch with them now. It feels like I've known those three all my life.

You travelled to Turkey, to see the ancient Roman ruins. What was that like?
It was absolutely brilliant. To get a free trip to Turkey was a bonus, but where we got to go, and the stuff we got to see was amazing. Normally when you go to see a monument, you have to stay behind the barriers. But we got to go the other side of them, we had a personal tour. We were actually standing on the mosaic floors where the Romans had stood.

You had to work using tools that were only available to the Romans. How did you find that, and what tools did you miss the most?
What I missed the most was a mixer. Actually, it's a silo, we call it, where you just push a button and the muck just comes out in buckets. I didn't have to do it a lot, but there were a few times I had to go and mix my own muck up, and God that was hard work. So I missed a silo. And also a forklift - that building would have been done a lot quicker if we'd had the modern methods. We had to chop our own stone, fetch mortar via wheelbarrow - it took ages.

Did you learn any new skills on this job that you might employ in the future?
Unfortunately, that's the real bad thing - no. I learned a lot of new skills on there, but the kind of job I do, I can't use any of that. Except that now I want to do a different job. I want to do more restoration work now. I carved two stone columns by hand, out of square blocks. I'd never have done that anywhere.

So this has inspired you to seek a new direction?
Yeah, it has. I'm just waiting for the recession to end, and then I'm going to start looking for mortar restoration work, doing up old buildings. I've heard there's a few firms that do it.

What were the high points of the project?
The proudest thing was my stone columns. I love them. I can look back on that and think "I carved them by hand." It took me nearly two weeks. When you look back at how they're finished, I was very pleased with them. And at the end, walking around and seeing the villa actually completed, that was really good.

What were the low points?
The frustrating thing was how slow it went. I found that particularly frustrating as time went on.

Were there any especially funny moments?
I thought Tim was hilarious, I loved him to bits. He was nuts, he's got a screw loose. His wacky ways made me laugh a lot.

How does it feel to have been among the first group of builders in over 1500 years to have built a Roman villa?
I don't think it's sunk in yet. Now that it's finished and I've come home, I feel a bit like I've never done it. Every day I wake up and I just want to go back up there - I didn't want the job to end. It hasn't really hit me yet what we've done. I think I'll come to terms with it when I see it on TV.