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Page 2 of 2 In the early 1950s she also became his wife, and thus began an extremely close and loving partnership, cut tragically short by Tom's death at the age of 64. During the two dozen years they were together Sonia raised two sons, looked after the house and her mother-in-law, and created an environment in which Tom could write his books - on canals, steam railways, vintage cars, industrial archaeology, plus biographies of 19th-century engineers such as Brunel, Telford and the Stephensons. Landmark Trust One of Tom's close friends during these years was John Smith, a wealthy eccentric who, Tom concluded in his autobiography, "has contributed more towards the preservation of the English landscape and its buildings than any man living". In 1965 Smith founded the Landmark Trust, whose aims were - and still are - to rescue worthwhile buildings from neglect and, when restored and furnished, to let them for holidays. This quickly opened a new door for Sonia, almost as challenging as navigating a barge piled high with coal. "One day John Smith phoned me," she says, as if it happened yesterday. "The Landmark Trust was rapidly acquiring houses and the time had come to furnish them - would I take on the job? I told him I had no training. We only want some shabby-looking furniture, he said, just like your house where everything feels so natural and not too planned. With a compliment like that," she laughs, "I couldn't resist the challenge. "With the needs and idiosyncrasies of each property in mind, I bought furniture at auctions, had it renovated when necessary, and then arranged delivery. Often Tom and I would hire a van and deliver the furniture ourselves. The satisfaction was in seeing an empty room suddenly come to life." After Tom's death she stopped working for a while, partly to give herself time to grieve properly, partly to look after Tom's mother who was living in a cottage they had built for her in the orchard. But when the Landmark Trust asked her to be a librarian, she was delighted, and this is work she still does today. "It's a very special part of the Landmark Trust tradition," she explains. "Each property has a small library which, like the furnishings, is tailor-made for it. I buy books for the properties in Wales and the border counties. They can be fact or fiction, as long as they give people a feeling for, and knowledge of, the local area." "Later on," she tells me, "the National Trust asked me to work on a big project at Stackpole in Pembrokeshire, where they were converting some farm buildings into 11 holiday cottages. I did all the furnishings for them, and the project won a Prince of Wales award. Later on I furnished cottages for Snowshill Manor in Gloucestershire - it was a real challenge to choose everything carefully and get the materials right." And she is proud of being involved with the restoration of HMS Warrior and advising on the restoration of Brunel's steamship Great Britain. Subsidence problemsAs time went by, Sonia realised that subsidence problems, especially in the oldest part of the house, could be put off no longer. She had asked the SPAB for advice, as Tom had also done, and with their guidance the work was done beautifully."I now became even more aware of what SPAB does to protect old buildings and realised how strongly I agree with their philosophy. Since Tom died I have been a devoted member. They certainly aren't ageist at SPAB," she laughs. "They allow me to go on chairing their education committee, whose job is to award scholarships and fellowships to young professionals who will be working on old buildings." Was there still time for waterways, I wondered. But I should have known better. "I'm a vice president of the Inland Waterways Association (IWA), but I don't do as much as I used to. I'm an ancient bird with the name Rolt whom they wheel out when they need me. They recognise Tom as the founder of it all, so I'm happy to help when I can, and I still feel passionate about the canals." That passion took her to the IWA's national festival at Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, in 2004, to help launch a campaign to gain government funding for our three waterways museums - at Gloucester Docks, Ellesmere Port and Stoke Bruerne. The campaign is led by the Waterways Trust, a national charity set up in 1999 to support canal restoration projects as well as the museums. Sonia and Timothy West are both vice-presidents. "It is terribly unfair that the Government helps the national railway, maritime and coal mining museums," she told me, "but not the waterways museums. Without funding, these internationally important collections are at risk. They are an outstanding educational resource, explaining the history of our canals and the people who lived and worked on them." My time with Sonia was coming to an end, as her one-day-a-week secretary had urgent matters to discuss with her. She receives a great deal of correspondence, including requests to give lectures, and invitations to attend meetings and events. She also deals with lettings for the cottage in the orchard, now furnished by Sonia as a holiday let. In the past she has chaired the parish council and the management committee of the Cheltenham Festival of Literature. I would be seeing Sonia again, at a forthcoming event sponsored by the Friends of the Cheltenham Festival at Postlip Hall near Winchcombe. This is where I had first met her, over a year ago, when she and Emma Smith had spent an evening talking about their wartime experiences on the canals. On this second visit to Postlip Hall, I saw Sonia in a new role, as she read illustrative passages from Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Mrs Gaskell, DH Lawrence, Daphne du Maurier, EM Forster, Arnold Bennett, George Eliot and other writers on the theme of industrial landscapes in our literature. Again, Sonia's past and present were closely connected, for this programme of readings had originally been devised by Dr Denis Smith for the Association of Industrial Archaeology's annual Rolt Memorial Lecture. Although the war thwarted Sonia Rolt's plans to be an actress, she has had a life filled with a huge variety of fascinating roles. Her pride and pleasure in the choices she has made, and the satisfaction they have given her, are obvious. |
