Story of the Hexagon

In 1976 I began Head For The Hills Walking Adventure. Four years later,in 1980, researching a route into the Cambrian Mountains from Garth Station on the Heart of Wales railway I stumbled on The Recreation Hall. This was a rather dilapidated corrugated iron and shiplap shed, sixty foot long, standing in what had been a service line, a spur from Garth Station to a former brickworks. The village now had other premises for recreation and the place was for sale, I bought it for £1500. It would be a perfect base for HFTH . . . but perhaps one could build there too? I subscribed to the then popular self-sufficiency movement and was determined to stay independent of debt. My life-style was modest and I would not countenance a mortgage. I was a reasonably able DIYer but certainly no builder. I asked a potter friend who was far more capable to join the project but when, two years later, we were ready to start we both had partners.

We partitioned up the shed as a temporary home for the four of us and got planning permission to erect a three-story hexagon in the narrow property. A hexagon made very good use of the space but the design was fanciful in a way that only a non-builder would dream of. It was another two years before designs were passed and work commenced. By then the other couple had abandoned the idea and my partner was pregnant. Within another two years she too moved out. The foundations were in, and I found myself on a long journey building largely on my own in the few months available each winter outside of the walking season.

I still thought of the project as a base for Head For The Hills as well as a home one day for my son and me. Learning building skills on so idiosyncratic a building was not easy and although friends came by to help and advise, progress was very slow. Landscaping the old railway line with its high banks in places took as much time and energy as the building. Another reason progress was slow was because as many materials possible were recycled. On the positive side building slowly means funds are always available. Also, ever on the lookout for materials, one can grasp opportunities when they arise and store them for the future. The detail of the building evolves as objects come to hand.

The timber framing is mostly re-used pitch pine. The pitch-pine windows never swell and built to fit dozens of double glazed panels, acquired at auction for £30 the lot. The porch features panels of Victorian coloured glass. The brick cladding is from a demolished railway turntable shed in Llanidloes, the slates from local roofs. Several oak columns supporting parts of the structure and the balustrading on the balconies are from a bandstand in Newtown. One balcony and the third floor are held up by cast iron columns, which once supported the grandstand at Fulham Baths. Preparing old wood, brick and steel to re-use is very labour intensive. The result is delightful but it is only possible if no price is placed on the labour involved.

The landscaping features more of the Llanidloes bricks. Some retaining walls are spoil from a quarry six miles away. Every massive stone was carried over a footbridge crossing a small river. Fencing is from forestry waste.

I moved into the top floor in 1998. Having intended the old shed to be accommodation for no more than four years it had served me 16. Because of the low walls of the top floor the most efficient way of furnishing it was to build the furniture into the space. A beech desk extended around one corner to be the Head For The Hills office. The newel post from the Victorian staircase of Builth Wells Wyeside Arts Centre was pivotal to the bed which faced the sunrise. A job lot of tiles surplus to two leisure centres built locally was deployed in the bathroom and toilet. Slate squares in the same lot became shelves and sink surrounds. A stack of old floorboards not only made the floor but also bookshelves, a Welsh dresser and a set of cupboards for which they were cut down the centre, tongue and grooved and routered to look like traditional matchboarding.

When, on November 14th 2003 the fire happened I had just fitted an oak headboard to the bed and opened every skylight and window to ventilate the fumes of the linseed oil. The plan was to focus on finishing the lower two floors, then to dismantle the shed and replace it with a smaller workshop and so create a courtyard in front of the building. This was planned to be done in a year and I was in a position to pay builders to make it possible. The fire changed all that.