Interview with Jim, the Foreman

18 January 2011

How did you hear about the series?
Through the internet.  I sent something in, met up with the production company for a chat, and it rolled on from there.

Why did you decide to take part?
For the interest of doing the Roman build.  Doing something completely different.  I'm a general builder, I do extensions, houses and what have you, but to do something out of my comfort zone was completely different.  It was using different materials and different methods, and it interested me. 

Why do you think they chose you?
'Cos I'm bloody barking, I think.  I don't know.  The other lads were barking, and they must have seen something in me that was mad as well. 

Is it true that you've never missed a deadline?
Never in my life.  Never.  Honestly.  I'm efficient.  When you watch the programme, I've got those lads doing things that nobody else would do.

The others lived onsite in caravans.  How come you didn't?
It was fortunate where the site was, I only lived about 12 miles up the road, so it as a bit pointless me staying there.  If it had been further away it would have been a different kettle of fish, but twelve miles away?  You go home, don't you?

Did you all get on well?
[Pause]  We got the job done...  They were alright in small doses.  Little Ben was a lazy twat, and I'd never employ half of them, but we got the job done.  We had varied personalities on site, and we gelled and got the job done in the end. 

You and Dai [the project's planner and archaeologist] seemed to have quite a volatile relationship at times.
Yeah.  I've got a lot of respect for Dai.  We mainly argued about the wheelbarrows, which he said we weren't allowed to use, because the Romans never had them.  But I saw on the Internet that the Greeks had got the blooming things, and the Romans would have pinched them off the Greeks.  They had the technology, why the hell wouldn't they have had wheelbarrows?  But it seemed to be a bit of a thorn in Dai's side.  You've got to give it to him, though, he knows his stuff.  He's the authority on it, I'm no authority.  I know how to lay a brick and that's it.

You travelled to Turkey to visit the Roman ruins at Ephesus.  What was that like?
That was brilliant.  It was beautiful - and then we went back to Wroxeter and had one lump of brickwork sticking up in the air.  The Turkish people couldn't have done enough for us in Ephesus, they bent over backwards for us.  They've got so much stuff there, they're almost blasé about archaeology.

You've mentioned having to work with tools that the Romans had.  What did you miss the most?
My digger, definitely.  The physical maul of that job.  We're building a house now, and after a day's work I go home and play with my kids, I do something, I go down the park.  But I was getting home at night and collapsing in my chair.  Towards the end of the job, you were knackered going to work, let alone at the end of the day.  I actually lost two-and-a-half stone on the job.

Did you learn a lot from this experience?
Yes, I did.  I've got a thirst for knowledge as it is.  Some of the stuff I'll never put into practise - I might use lime render, I suppose, but the other things  won't.  But itwas really worthwhile doing it, just to learn all that stuff anyway.

What were the biggest challenges that you faced?
Getting the lads to work together properly.  That was a challenge every morning.  I wasn't the gaffer on the job.  I'd been told I couldn't sack anybody or shout at anybody, I had to coerce them nicely.  I don't normally mess about.  I've sacked a lad this morning for being a lazy sod.  You thin the bad ones out and get new ones in to replace them.  So the toughest bit was getting people organised and working together.

What were the high points for you?
Lifting the building up.  When we pulled those timber frames up, it was brilliant. The relief of seeing it going up!  Anything could have gone wrong.  We lifted up five or six tonnes of timber straight up off the floor, hinged up on one point, pulled with a rope.  That was awesome.  The laying the blocks and the rendering you do every day anyway, but lifting a building up like that you'd never do again. 

What about the low points?
Chopping bloody bricks and rendering.  Just the volume of render that went on those walls.  There's 48 tonnes of it on there - that's a hell of a lot of render.  That was getting a bit monotonous - I don't like rendering at the best of times.

What were the funniest moments?
The cart!  Fred, the joiner, made a cart, and as he pulled it up the ramp to the job, both wheels fell of at the same time.  One day, Tim the plasterer, decided to get dressed up in a batman cape, put pink lipstick on and run round the site half-naked.  He was an extrovert guy, he was definitely a character on the job.

 How does it feel to have been among the first people in 1500 years to have built a Roman Villa in this country?
To achieve what we did, manually, is brilliant.  I'd think twice about doing it again, just for the physical maul -it was really tough.  But it was brilliant doing it, and really educational as well.