An Artisan's Journey: From Punk to Preservation with Ted Edley

I'm thrilled to welcome the incredibly talented craftsman, Matthew Edley, known as Ted. Sitting down at Highclere Castle, we delve into Ted's journey from a punk rocker with a distinct red Mohican to a renowned metalwork master. We talk about his meticulous work repairing and conserving the castle’s historical candelabra and lamps, including converting them from candlelight to electric while maintaining their historical integrity. Ted also shares his experiences as a part of the TV series 'The Restorers,' where he showcases the art of craftsmanship and restoration. We discuss the importance of using traditional techniques and materials to preserve history and how these skills are transferred across various trades. Join us as we celebrate the blend of modern restoration with historical preservation at Highclere Castle.


00:43 Ted's Craftsmanship and Metalworking
01:20 Challenges of Restoring Highclere Castle
03:17 Conservation vs. Restoration
07:44 Ted's Television Career
09:11 The Art of Traditional Techniques
11:52 Future Projects and Collaborations
14:53 Reflections on Highclere Castle

You can hear more episodes of Lady Carnarvon's Official Podcasts at https://www.ladycarnarvon.com/podcast/

New episodes are published on the first day of every month.

Transcript

  Welcome to my podcast and thank you so much for joining me today. I'm delighted to be sitting in a room here at Highclere with my guest,  Matthew Edley, but always known as Ted. So he's Ted.  Thank you so much for joining me.

 You might well recognize Ted because he is graced with the most wonderful Red Mohican. And I think that has been one of your kind of bylines, hasn't it? On TV presenting as well. 

Once punk rocker, always a punk rocker.

 kind of, You're a punk rocker for life. , here I am still, in a slightly puddled middle aged and still sporting the stupid haircut. But I've met Ted, in fact, through my number three sister, Lucy, because Ted is a master craftsman and absolutely brilliant in terms of metal working and many other.

Repair jobs, but we have so many Candelabra and not a single one of them was actually straight and they were on beautiful sculptures. They were on ceramic throughout the castle. If you look at Downton Abbey on TV, you'll find all our candelabra there and they're all, they were a little bit wonky, but no longer because Ted has woven his magic bit by bit.

   I don't know, where did you begin Ted   I think we actually started in the library  because one of the lamps on one side of the fireplace was missing a limb. I think Lucy showed me around and the more we looked the more that we could see every single lamp we touched they were loose they were as you said they were wonky and it's a real nice insight into the history of the castle because each lamp is then presenting its own new set of challenges and you can each one's been repaired slightly differently got different ways that they've  been put together and it's more a case of When, originally they were all candelabra, so originally they would have all had candles in.

When they've been converted to electric lights, what a lot of them have had is they've literally had a piece of wood wedged in the top and then a light fitting screwed into that. Some of them have had like pieces of rubber put in and then the light fitting screwed into that also.  But what's happened over time, they've been knocked, rubber's gone hard and decayed.

They've been cleaned and everything works loose. Some of the lamps themselves, the actual fittings, the threads have stripped.  Every time I approach the next one, it's  oh, what am I going to find this time? And it's always a bit of an adventure, but  it's good.  It's actually there's a real sense of pride when I stand back from one particular lamp and it started and everything was completely wonky and they're all over the place.

 To stand back and say, Oh, actually, yeah, they're all straight.  It does  give you a bit of a buzz actually that kind of stuff.  It's both I think really important in terms of Fire and health and safety from my point of view is as a company Curator if you like and equally well for the beauty because some of these lamps and the lamp bases are completely exquisite And yeah, you have been a wonder with how you've begun to  repair them and then prepare them in a sense to step Forwards once more as something of great beauty.

isn't a restoration. This is more of a conservation because this is a very fine line on each one of the lamps. We could have completely dismantled them, cleaned them back, made them absolutely pop and be spotlessly clean.

But then they would have looked out of place in the rest of the castle. They're wearing their age.   I'm wearing my age too. They  fit with me.  Interestingly, it's  the gentlemen's smoking room.

Yeah, they're completely black. The laps are completely black. Obviously, where you  had all the gentlemen in there smoking their cigars  throughout the ages. When you're  repairing these things, you have to be really sympathetic to the object, but not only to the object, but to the surroundings, what the object is sitting in.

 If they were all polished up and all made and all shiny, then everything else would suddenly look  out of place. you have to always approach these, this kind of work and these kind of jobs. In a way of respect for the item, respect also for the surroundings in which it's sitting.     It's quite a difficult balancing act you can't just stop throwing loads of modern materials and modern glues and everything at it.

So every time I'm doing a repair, I'm soldering it using some silver solder as well as normal sort of soft solder. So you're repairing it using a traditional technique. So every time I have to make a new, say, mounting disc or something, it's always made with brass. I could use copper, I could use even use steel, but back in the day they would have used a piece of brass or a piece of bronze.

So use the traditional materials using the traditional methods. And when somebody would come to it, hopefully in 100, 200, 300 years time, They'll see what I've done and it won't look out of place. It's completely in keeping with how the light would have been maybe converted or worked on back,  in the day .   I suppose I, my approach to the lamps first of all, was to put some lampshades on, which seems a little kind of ephemeral and inconsequential. But I, at that time, I really didn't know where to turn. In order to ask someone to  repair them.

, the whole castle asks so many questions.  And it gives me an awful lot of problems to solve, but it's interesting because it asks you to solve those problems. There's no one else to turn to. And it's been an extraordinary journey for me as you try to put it back. So it's somewhere.

You enjoyed it.  I mean, Obviously it's incredibly taxing. I would imagine. Is it something that you've really relished doing? I have really relished doing it. I think I've now got a much better little black book of people to turn to Ted. And my sister Lucy has been extraordinary in terms of the  people she's come across in order to help make the inside look even more beautiful.

Whereas to start with, obviously George and I were focusing on in 2003 on the roof over the saloon. And then we did a huge amount of roof on the front half of the castle. Then I've done the lead roof at the back part of the castle. And as in if the front looks South face of the weather, then the back part, which is actually over the front door, which is the front of course, but in terms of my roof map, it  goes another way round and however boring it is.

That's where we had to start And it is a huge lesson and sometimes I think I've got calmer as it comes in because I usually know more now what's caused it and where to go in the first instance and So it's less of a panic stations and more of Crisis management, which is only what you gain with experience.

Yeah 

But what's exciting for me is I think i've walked past the red stairs for at least two decades or a bit more than that now and looked at that. Winky wonky  I think some of them were actually at 45 degrees instead of being upright.

And that was actually, that was quite a challenge because we had to put scaffolding up to get to it. And I'm not good with heights. It's, even though it was quite a big platform, I could feel my knees being slightly wobbly.  But anyway, we  got it done. But yeah, that, they were a definite challenge and actually probably were the ones.

I think. Those ones are the two in the dining room. They're probably the ones I'll stand back and think, Yeah, those are the ones I'm most proud of. Because the dining room ones were in a bit of a state as well, weren't they? The big ones in front of the mirrors. Ted, you're famous here for all the most amazing work you've done.

But you're also famous in the wider world, in Britain, for your role  as a repair guru on television.    How often is the  program made that you're part of?  What I'm actually involved with is, it's part of the Salvage Hunters series  and they've got a spin off called The Restorers, and I'm one of the restorers on that.

 They usually  film the series over the course of the year and then it's broadcast the following year.  

I think it's, for me, it's showcased the value.  Of craftsmanship and restoration and care and time.   Everybody on the program is absolutely fantastic, but I mean at the tip of the iceberg, I mean there are so many really good skillful people out there we do have a wealth of it in this country.

There's always going to be the problem of getting the younger people interested because it can be mind numbingly boring. Constantly cleaning or having to make mundane tasks. Not all of the tasks are like that, of course.    We do have a very sort of strong tradition craftsmen.

  There's Steve, who's a woodworker. I think he did the ladder that's in the library. Yes.  And  Steve's absolutely amazing.  This was repairing the library ladder, which I found upstairs and realized. I didn't have a ladder so I was standing on chairs to get books, and the library ladder was in a bedroom on the top floor.

So that came down. And then was sent off to be restored That's right. and it's come back looking immaculate. It's now wonderfully propped in the library! Quite exciting!  He's amazing,  he will always use traditional techniques. He won't use any kind of modern machines or anything.

And he even keeps boxes of rusty nuts and bolts and rusty screws so that if he needs to put something in that's just the right shade of rust, he'll rummage until he finds one instead of putting something  all shiny in there. So it's  yeah, he's a good man, Steve. How did you get into television to start with?

How were you picked to go on the Sandwich Hunters? Um   I was just working for myself and I was doing a lot of restoration work and I do quite a bit of sculptural work as well. I just had a message out of the blue saying  , they wanted me as a guest restorer.

There was another spin off of the program called Classic Cars and they wanted me to make a dashboard for it. It was an NG. It's a post war MG, but it looks like a pre war MG. So I made this dash, didn't think anything more of it. And  it was about, six months later I suddenly had a phone call saying, Oh yeah, we've seen the reels that you did.

 We've got the program from Restorers, would you like to be involved with that? And I said, yeah, alright. And that's it. I was in four series later and that was that . How amazing! So it sounds like you can turn your hand to most things and most people.

Most materials, but  you're primarily working with metal. That's correct. What do you know? It's so much of it is transferable skills If you've got someone who's a really good woodworker, they've already got the marking out. They've already got the measuring They've already got a lot of the base skills which go across the board even whether it comes to upholstery or whatever material It is there are certain skills that are transferable to all disciplines  And it's funny because  I worked for a coach builders years ago and we used to do mainly pre war cars.

So we would get the bare chassis come in and we would then have to make all the panel work for them. And  what happened was that we had a lot of antique dealers would come into us and we were having to repair the antiques. But the thing is, if you're making something for a pre war motor car, It's no different to making a lamp to go on a sideboard somewhere or  an extractor hood to go over a cooker.

All the disciplines are exactly the same. It's just picking your set of tools up and taking it away from the car and go and doing a lamp or a bathtub or whatever it may be. So it's  , the transferable skills.  I think that I was very lucky that the fellow who I worked for and learned so much from.

He was taught in the traditional techniques, which he and me and another fellow, he  passed on. Passed on to us. He's a bit tip of an iceberg really. But we learned so much. And it's funny because I still see him to this day and I always just say, it's all your fault. It's all your fault that I'm doing this.

And he just laughs. But it's very good. I know about your sculpture and I've been perusing your website about that. And I have an idea of something I'd ask you. I'd like to ask you to make for Jordi and I out in the garden, so I know exactly where it is and I can't wait to show you, 

 I'm quite excited. I suddenly had a brilliant idea. Brain wave, which I thought was quite fun was this brain wave at about four o'clock in the morning when you were lying away I've been walking through this particular part of the garden and They're used to at some point be sculpture be statues and other things like that And there was nothing when george and I took over However, except in one immense statue of charlemagne, which I think was so big Move it to sell it for anything and A lot was sold after World War II.

It's not a criticism, it's merely an observation. Was that purely for financial reasons? It was. It was for survival reasons. Yeah, of course. And it wasn't done with any joy, but out of necessity. Again, every time is different. However  we have put back a few. Of either sculptural arches or obviously the statue of the green man come from a living tree I love working with wood as you come up.

That's fine. Do you know I hadn't noticed it until it was yesterday morning when I was driving in I was like, oh, do you know the thing is I was driving up to I thought it'd be great if I had a face carved into it Just oh it has Oh, that's really good, it's quite cool.  I thought of that particular sculpture because Gerald Dickens had just been performing his great grandfather's play, A Christmas Carol, and obviously the Green Man is one of the legendary figures in our cathedrals, all connected with the druids and the oak knowers of the past,

and I suddenly thought  I, Really relish the connection we have between the land and the wood. And I thought he would look rather wonderful there. And then I got in a cherry picker so that he could make the leaves to me down the face. And he's a great wood sculptor called Simon O'Rourke. So I'm hugely grateful to him.

And I've got another idea for him elsewhere. But going through the garden, there's a path which winds round and  I've been turning it round in my head between wood and metal. And I think it'd be a really lovely place to  have a metal sculpture through which we walk. So that's what I wanted to share with you, which I think  would be quite fun actually.

So  when the weather's a little bit less inclement, we can take a walk. And  I'd value your ideas immensely, but it'd be lovely to have. something of Ted outside as well as all your handiwork inside. It's that strange thing. My artwork and the sculptural but the whole thing with doing repair and restoration work is to make it look like no one's been near it.

Obviously lights are straight, but to all intents and purposes, somebody would see it, they'd think,  nothing's happened to that, because they haven't got the before and the after. the artwork you always get, or the sculptural work, you always get the gratification of people saying, oh   you made that.

Whereas with the restoration  unless they know the before and after of the objects.  It's not a problem, it's just the way it is.  It is funny and curiously enough when  I've decorated this room But you wouldn't know I'd done that because I hope you might think it's always been  like this Do you know what?

I think this was the first room when I first came here and met with Lucy we came in here and had lunch and Yeah, it was just over this is obviously always been like this And it's the same with many of the other rooms and bedrooms in the castle. And  I'm writing about  English country style at the moment, which I'm thoroughly enjoying  just lightly, and just thinking about it.

And  nobody would probably know how much I've done , but you're aware of it in terms of the atmosphere after it, and that word, Atmosphere is quite hard to describe and  it's the small details and the totality which make the atmosphere which either make something welcoming and work or not which is fascinating.

the thing that's really struck me at my time being here is actually how welcoming it is particularly the staff are all great you've got a really good crew of people  and they all have as much respect for the house as everybody else and 

it's just very warm and very welcoming and It's an absolute pleasure to come here, it really is. I'm really glad and you're very kind. And also you  accept it because it is quite often a little bit chaotic. Yes, of course it is. And we can't quite keep up with ourselves. But I also think back and think in the past there would have been 25 electricians, there were in fact.

There were all these departments with different people. The house is the same blooming size and it's just each department is usually two or three people thick. And that, and I look around and think oh my god, how am I going to do it?  But  this house, this home, this history, this heritage, teaches me so much, Ted.

And it's lovely when I find wonderful craftsmen such as yourself to bring in, then I learn from you and we all learn from each other. And together, the teamwork of everybody then takes it forward again. But  it's great. And I know you've got more work to do in the A little bit more in the library, and is it  Oh the gallery, anything for the gallery, oh my god.

Yeah, I nearly started those today, but I thought no I'm not going to start it now because I'm just going to run out of time. So it was  yeah, so I'm going to come back and then it'll be gallery time. And then I've got to work my way around. Absolutely wonderful. Yeah, and I need to  then I'm going to see Lucy about a couple of other little bits I'm not too sure about, what she wants me to do.

 You'd hope that your repairs, you just fit and forget. I don't have to go back to that anymore. We can leave that and  move on. Yeah. I often think that I'm trying to do and have each part that I'm trying to help prepare done well.

So I'm not doing it for another 80 years and I certainly won't be here then, but I'm hoping it's got a good sense of longevity and it's really well done because this house was really well built. So it's extraordinary. Ted, thank you so much. I'm looking forward to seeing you on television, on both the re records and the new  series of Salvage Hunters and other programs which  you will be on.

I hope you'll let me know in advance of all of them. And perhaps I can ring in and ask some difficult question. I wish I could. It'd be great. But thank you so much for all you're doing here. You've made the most immense difference. You're very welcome. And it's been beautiful to observe the detail with what you've done.

Thank you.