Our History

In 1997, Ned Scharer completed his sculpture training at Central St Martins, and spent the following year working on the restoration of Plas Mawr, a fine Elizabethan town house in Conwy, North Wales. This was the beginning of a lifelong interest in lime, and an enlightening introduction to its use in the repair of historic buildings. He went on to work on further interesting projects, amongst them, the Diana Memorial and the Great Court project at the British Museum. Here he saw conservation in action, both the building-lime side and the specialist conservation of the fabric and artefacts of those buildings. In 1999 he moved to London with his wife Sophie, a potter, and began a degree in Conservation studies at the City and Guilds of London Art School, gaining the highest grade ever awarded. They returned to Wales in 2003 and together they set up Scharer Conservation, the first conservation company in North Wales. Operating from the outbuildings of Ned's Parents House in the Conwy Valley they began specialising in lime work, especially for churches and chapels, and studio work for object conservation.

St Michaels Church, Betws-y-coed. Restoration completed 2004.

Interior limewash at Llanfaglan.

Setting-out for hand modelled plasterwork, Molineaux Hotel, Wolverhampton.

Ty Mawr, Conwy

New Opportunities

The business has grown and developed, with prestigious conservation projects being balanced alongside smaller lime-based building conservation works in North Wales. A part time role for Ned, with Ty Mawr Lime Ltd, holding stock of their range of high quality materials and advising their customers in North Wales, led to us setting up as independent stockists of their lime and other building products. In 2009, we decided that the time had come to relocate to larger premises, and the timely opportunity arose to take on the tenancy of Plas Tirion, a 16th Century manor house and farm; one of the most interesting and important houses in Conwy, and only two miles from our base at Betws-y-coed.As Ned's expertise in lime grew and with a growing reputation as a first class conservator, it became clear that Scharer Conservation had evolved into two separate businesses, and in 2010 we set up The Natural Building Centre Ltd.

The Future

We are right at the beginning of developing Plas Tirion into a comprehensive resource for traditional and sustainable building. The last few years have been busy, juggling conservation work in London with developing the new site in Wales and bringing up young children. The restoration work on Plas Tirion House is set to begin in Spring 2011 to see the project and our building materials in action, we will begin running training courses later on this year, and longer term, with improved facilities, we will be able to run more specialised conservation courses.