SPAB members in profile


‘I like the rough houses!’ T


he Three Blackbirds in Ely is a stunning, grade II* house dating from the 13th century.An observant passer-by might pick


up some clues about the age and significance of this long, mellow, brick building if they spotted its fine stone buttresses, traces of mullioned windows and mighty chimneys, but this is not a house that “wears its heart on its sleeve”. It’s not until its owner, SPAB


member ProfessorMartin Rudwick, follows his guests up a modest staircase leading to the great, vaulted sitting room on the first floor and listens to their gasps of surprise that the building truly reveals itself. “I feel very disappointed if people come up the stairs and aren’t gratifyingly impressed when they reach the top,” he says, adding: “I know it’s a worn phrase, but it really does have ‘the wow factor’ doesn’t it?”


THE Three Blackbirds is the perfect “nest” for a man whose distinguished and unusual academic career has encompassed both the sciences and the humanities. Since “retiring” from academic life, Prof Rudwick has certainly had more time to devote to his fascinating home, but the books and papers arranged about his impressive, beamy study demonstrate clearly that his studies and research continue. His particular academic interest centres on Darwin and his contemporaries and their impact on the history of scientific thought. Prof Rudwick was educated at


Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in the 1950s with first class honours in natural sciences. He later received his


60 Cornerstone, Vol 32, No 2 2011


doctoral degree in paleo-zoology at Cambridge. He taught at the university’s department of geology until his growing interest in history of science was recognised by a rare crossover appointment to the faculty of the department of history and philosophy of science. He explains: “I became


increasingly interested in the history of what I was studying – and then I jumped ship to teach history and philosophy of science. It is unusual to move from a science to a humanity, but for me it seemed a very natural step.” The author of


He gestures to the room around


PROFESSIONALS TO THOSE MAINLY


academic books and collections of essays on what he describes as “the earth’s deep history”, he is currently writing an accessible book for non-specialist readers on the history of ideas about the relation between the earth’s history and our human place within it. Ely, striking distance from


INTERESTED IN AESTHETICS. MEMBERS ARE


PROPERTY, BUT ALSO IN ITS SOCIAL


HISTORY”


Cambridge, is the ideal base for this work. “I have an honorary position at my former department,” he says, “and I can use the libraries and archives at the university. Having been a student at Trinity College means you practically imbibe the architecture – it seeps into your being, which, partly, I am sure, explains why I am fascinated by buildings like this one.”


INTERESTED IN THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF A


WIDE RANGE OF PEOPLE, FROM


CORNERSTONE CATER FOR A


“SPAB AND


us. It’s not just the huge, lofty space that impresses his guests. In both the sitting room and in the adjoining study, there are complex and sturdy crown-post roofs that are recognised by architectural historians as being among the most significant early roof structures in the country. In the study, in particular – the upper part of the medieval hall, around which the building extended over the years – the rafters and braces date from1280. The Three Blackbirds is a remarkable survivor. When it was


built, probably for a prosperous Ely merchant, the house was already unusual as a high-status secular property in a part of the city distinct from the abbey and cathedral. Traces of intricate stonework and ghosts of mullioned


windows suggest a building intended to display wealth. The fine space now the sitting room was added a few decades later, possibly as a place to store the merchant’s stock – perhaps wool carried down the Great Ouse to King’s Lynn and traded with the Netherlands. The Three Blackbirds probably had its own landing quay. This connection with the


Netherlands is particularly apt, for the historic centre ofAmsterdam


An ancient house with real ‘wow factor’ – and a proud, caring owner whose life has been devoted to the study and teaching of mankind’s relationship with science, thought and history: in other words, a natural member of the Society. Kate Griffin travelled to Cambridgeshire to meet Professor Martin Rudwick


also played an important role in prompting the professor’s passionate and practical interest in old buildings.After leaving Cambridge, he taught the history of science at the Free University inAmsterdam. “It is the most wonderful historic city and my wife and I bought a beautiful 17th-century house on one of the central canals, which was quite a contrast to the brutalist concrete campus on the edge of the city.”


PROF Rudwick recalls that he took great pleasure in carefully repairing that house. “I don’t think I was a SPAB member then, but, looking back, I think I had the right ideas and the municipal authority had good guidelines and regulations and encouraged us to do the right things.We revealed some wonderful original ceiling joists, for example, and that really fired my imagination.” He was particularly struck at


the time by the city authority’s enlightened view of “listed building” ownership. “When they applied the equivalent of council tax to a ‘monument house’ the rate was reduced in recognition of the fact that the maintenance and upkeep of the property added to the appeal of the city. They saw that as a civic contribution, and I still think that’s something we in this country could learn from. “With a house like this you


have continuous maintenance issues and you really have to keep on top of them. But I don’t mind,” he smiles. “I see this as my hobby.” After living in the heart of old


Amsterdam, Prof Rudwick’s next posts took him toAmerica, first to Princeton University, New Jersey, and then to the University of California, San Diego, where he


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