Martin Bragg Caroe, B.A., R.I.B.A.

Martin Caroe was born on 15 November 1933, the son of Alban Caroe, the distinguished conservation architect, and grandson of W. D. Caroe, a leading figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement and William Morris’s Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings. Martin was educated at Winchester (where he was to become consultant architect) Trinity College, Cambridge and Kingston School of Art for the Diploma in Architecture. During the 1950s building boom, many of his contemporaries regarded conservation work as second-best; all the bright young things were bent on expressing themselves creatively in new buildings, rather than ‘patching up’ the old, however venerable they might be. Martin Caroe was eager to reverse this fashionable attitude and began by endeavouring to raise the profile of such organizations as the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association, of which he was president in 1978-9; the Cathedral Architects Association and the Association for the Conservation of Historic Buildings. Caroe joined the family firm, Caroe and Partners, in 1961 and worked with his father on a number of projects, notably the conservation of the sculpture on the West Front of Wells Cathedral from 1974-86, initiated by the then Dean, the Very Revd. Patrick Mitchell, FSA. This involved considerable research, as well as physical activity, and Martin gradually took over from his father as work progressed on what was one of the the most challenging and significant conservation programmes in Europe, attracting architects and scholars from all over the world. With Professor Robert Baker Caroe pioneered a system of non-destructive stone cleaning and repair which is now practised throughout the profession, and recruited a team of archaeologists, art historians, engineers and painting conservators as advisers – now a sine qua non but then something of an innovation. It was a bitter disappointment to Caroe that he was not appointed to succeed his father as architect to Wells. He respected the craftsmen with whom he worked, always leaving dated lead plaques etched with the name of every plumber, stone worker and architect. Apart from Wells, Caroe probably derived most satisfaction from his work as architect to the Dean and Chapter of St Davids Cathedral from 1966 and Rochester Cathedral from 1982 until his death, though he was equally at home in a village church as in a cathedral. Two particularly demanding projects, for which he won awards, were undertaken at St Helen’s church, Abingdon, involving conservation of the important fourteenth-century painted ceiling; and St Peter’s, Hascombe, where he conserved the wallpaintings. Among secular schemes on which Caroe worked, the most outstanding were the restoration of the decaying Kingston Lacy between 1982, when it was acquired by the National Trust, and 1984; the renovation of the Masthouse and Mould Loft at Chatham Dockyard, 1988-9, for which he won a Civic Trust commendation, and, as architect to the Tower of London from 1991-9, the repair of the south front of the White Tower and conservation of two unique pre-Fire of London houses on Tower Green. Caroe served on may advisory bodies, both architectural and ecclesiastical. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Council for the Care of Churches, 1986-92; a Commissioner of English Heritage, 1989-92, Faculties (Church in Wales) 1991-2 and the Cathedrals and Churches Commission for the Church in Wales from 1994 until his death. He was master of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers in 1986, a family tradition arising from the revival of the use of lead as a building material in the nineteenth century. Caroe published papers in professional journals and, jointly with his father, Stonework: maintenance of churches and surface repair, published by the Council for the Care of Churches in 1984 – still essential reading for architects. Caroe’s exceptional understanding of materials is also evident in his beloved garden. Vann, the house he inherited in Hampshire, had been tinkered with by a succession of owners until W. D. Caroe bought it and created a Lutyens-style unity out of chaos. He then commissioned Gertrude Jekyll to design the garden, working with her to create a yew walk, a water garden and extensive woodland. Martin Caroe and his wife spent blissful, but often back-breaking, Sundays working in the garden, which they loved to share with friends and countless visitors. Caroe died on 19 November 1999 and his architect son, Oliver, is now the fourth generation to join the family practice.