Undaunted by a diagnosis three years ago, for a very rare muscle-wasting condition, 66-year old Paul has completely renovated a rotting 19 century circus wagon.
The TV appearance is the latest development in Paul’s colourful career which includes having done a five-year apprenticeship as a harpsichord maker, being Head of the Cabinet and Joinery workshop at Blenheim Palace, founding a therapeutic horticultural project, establishing a goat farm and making raw artisan cheeses.
Many men would have slowed down after a series of falls which finally resulted in his being diagnosed with myofibrillar myopathy, a very rare genetic form of muscular dystrophy.
But nothing would stop Paul, who lives in the Witney area and is described by his partner Katharine as very talented, determined and always able to make the best of any situation.
Katharine, who lives in Shropshire said:
In August 2018 he decided to develop skills formed by remaking shepherd’s huts into renovating an ex-circus wagon, found on the North Norfolk coast and completed with a lot of help from wonderful family and friends.
Described as a legacy project for his children and grandchildren, Paul’s wagon was originally a pantechnicon and would have been used in the late 1890s to transport circus/fairground tents and equipment around the country. Like many similar vans of that type, it was turned into living accommodation in the 1920s.
The project caught the attention of a TV production company used by Channel 4 who filmed the project. TV Presenter George Clarke is an architect, TV presenter, campaigner and the founder of the TV show Amazing Spaces.
He said:
“It was an honour to meet Paul, one of the most skilled and courageous people I’ve ever encountered. He didn’t give up when he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, instead he worked tirelessly to build something for his children and grandchildren to stand as a lasting memory to a true master craftsman.”
There were several challenges associated with the execution and completion of this project.
Katharine said:
The first was regarding Paul having to come to terms with this condition from the physical and mental point of view and also with the extreme bouts of fatigue, his vulnerability to the cold and his inability to climb up steps and work at height. He had to relinquish some of the tasks that previously he would have been able to complete with ease; the loss of his undoubted ability and in a way he had to learn to let go and hand over certain tasks to others.
Ideally, we wanted to start in May and the September start meant we had to completely rethink the whole process (and the layout at the farm) as winter crept up on us. We had to reposition an existing “unit” so we could place the wagon parallel to that in order to brace the wagon against it.
The wagon was not the first horse drawn vehicle to be restored by Paul. Others include Governess carts; a horse drawn Bakers Cart and a traction engine Living Van. Not content with this achievement Paul is now turning his smallholding over to operate as a market garden as he sees this is the best way forward to try and help the planet by growing sustainably produced seasonal vegetables for local people.
Now unable to walk many paces and much weakened by his condition he still needs family and friends to make this happen and also has like-minded volunteers from around the world, via the WWOOFer scheme coming to help; he says “it’s all very exciting."
Nothing is ordinary about Paul and Katharine’s story; the couple who were each other’s first loves at school, finally ended up getting together again many decades later;
Paul quips, “I needed a fifty-year gap just to be sure!”