Paul has been involved with the current project to restore Rectory Lane Cemetery since around 2009. He recalls his first encounter with the cemetery, “I arrived in Berkhamsted with a young family in 2006. In the early days we walked different routes from our home in Upper Hall Park into the town and on one foray we walked through the Three Close Lane gates. The cemetery was overgrown with fallen trees, had broken gravestones and a derelict bricked-up hut near the entrance. You couldn’t see from one side to the other, so thick was the vegetation, so I had no idea it was possible to walk down to Rectory Lane and to the High Street. Shortly afterwards I met Ken Wallis at the Petertide Fair and signed-up to volunteer for the project. In the early days, there were some clearance parties arranged with the Hemel Hempstead Conservation Volunteers (now part of the Chiltern Society), and little by little, it was reclaimed …” Paul has been a Trustee of the Friends of St. Peter’s since its founding in 2013, and is a committee member of the Berkhamsted Citizens Association since 2011 (and joint vice-Chairman since 2018). He chaired the ‘Townscape’ committee of the BCA for five years. In his spare time, Paul is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor in a large, London-based practice.
