Helard Bishton is a stonemason with skills in building, fixing, carving and conserving stone, as well as lime plaster and mortars. He’s currently working on the restoration of Castle Coch, Wales, and has experience on the preservation of many national monuments and historic buildings as a subcontractor for conservation companies. His QEST Scholarship will support conservation studies at West Dean College where he will learn skills in a broad variety of traditional building crafts such as architectural and structural metalwork, plasters and renders, and the conservation of structural timber work.
He’s been working professionally on historic British buildings for over 15 years, supplementing his knowledge with training periods abroad. He’s travelled to Italy to learn marble carving, as well as visiting carving festivals internationally. Helard is particularly keen to learn plaster casting techniques that allow cost-effective reproduction of architectural features, such as stone capitals.
