Cbs director Ian Storey formed Heritage Conservation limited in the Isle of Man in 1999 and later moved to the uk mainland incorporating hcl in the uk in 2002.
With the arrival of fellow director Charles Mangles in 2003, the company name changed to conservation building services ltd.
I've worked in building conservation since 1990, initially as a labourer for a number of southwest conservation companies. Most of my early experience was gained alongside some of the very best traditional trades people in the business, working on the vernacular buildings of Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, principally with lime mortars and plasters and later moving onwards to cob, wattle and daub and upwards to traditional roofing techniques and masonry construction and repair.
Between 1996 and 2000 I worked for the Dorset based St Blaise Ltd.
My first project was Plas Mawr, an exceptional Elizabethan merchants house in Conwy, North Wales, assisting with the repair and conservation of the decorative plasterwork. As a site manager for the company I once again enjoyed working with some wonderful people and managing a diversity of projects, from repairing garrison and field guns for the Royal Armouries in Plymouth, to cleaning and conserving masonry in Gibraltar, or the dismantling and reinstatement of a Chinese coffered ceiling in the Republic of Ireland . A tremendously valuable experience, but most importantly, one I look back on with great fondness.
Ian Storey, Director
I have been working with historic buildings since 1988, when I joined the Parks and Palaces Group of the Property Services Agency and became involved with projects in Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London.
In 1994 I joined St Blaise Ltd, widely regarded as one of the country’s leading firms of conservation builders. Two years as PA to Ian Constantinides taught me about the principles and techniques of building conservation. This was followed by two years as a site manager, where I was able to put what I learned into practice, running jobs that varied from a Shell Grotto in Wales to a country house in Buckinghamshire. After that I spent six years as a quantity surveyor managing the finances of jobs from Scotland to Devon to South-east Kent, projects on all types of historic structures from installing masonry anchors into a Norman castle to repointing one wall of an old cottage, via churches, abbeys, follies and forts. In 2003 I left St Blaise and joined Ian Storey to set up cbs ltd.
Charles Mangles, Director