In 1995 a new Bermuda book appeared in the island’s book stores: Devonshire, a compilation of noteworthy historic buildings in that parish. It was written by Andrew Trimingham, also a Bermuda Arts Council awardee this evening.
Significantly, the book was the first volume of the National Trust’s Architectural Heritage Series, and to date has been followed by six other regional volumes – St.George’s, Sandys, Hamilton, Smiths, Paget, Hamilton Town and City. All include pictures, descriptions and diagrams of the island’s historic buildings, as well as a glossary of architectural terms and stories about the families who built or inherited or bought the properties. And all are invaluable resources – for those who love Bermuda’s unique architecture, for historians, even for creative writers whose imaginations can draw on the historical detail for inspiration. Anybody with a passion for Bermuda’s past and culture cannot do without them.
These books are the culmination of many contributors’ research and work but in each volume you’ll find one name almost hidden in a list of others: Margaret Lloyd. And yet without Margaret, the coordinator of this mammoth project, these books might never have come to fruition. As Dr. Thomas James, researcher for several volumes says, “Margie is very quiet and low key, but she always makes sure the work gets done. She is the driving force, the whole reason these books have happened.” Remembering the publication of Devonshire, she says, “it was extraordinarily good for a gang who didn’t know what they were doing!”
Born in Bermuda in 1933, Margaret was schooled at the Bermuda High School for girls. Architecture did not engage her much as a young girl although she did take pleasure in Bermuda’s distinctive chimneys. She was far more interested in the family’s sail boats and recalls on at least one occasion being stranded after sailing down the South Shore to St. David’s with her brother. “We had to call my mother up to come and pick us up,” she remembers. Aged 15 she went to Cheltenham Ladies College, a boarding school in England, and then to the University of Oxford. She studied chemistry, a subject she says she has since long forgotten. In 1955 she and her mother travelled to Africa on board the ship the Durban Castle. While on board she met her future husband, Peter Lloyd, who was in the Colonial Service and serving in Kenya at the time. Following their marriage in Bermuda two years later, they embarked on a life of living in different parts of the world – the Seychelles, Fiji, Hong Kong, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. After her husband’s retirement in 1986, they returned permanently to Bermuda. A member of the Bermuda National Trust since 1977, Margaret became involved with the Trust’s Historic Buildings Survey, itself a massive project and one without which the subsequent Architectural Heritage Series of books would have been impossible. The idea was to produce a comprehensive inventory of historic buildings by comparing all the buildings marked on a map prepared by Lt. A.J. Savage between 1898 and 1899 with those on the 1984 Ordnance Survey map. Margaret worked extremely hard with a team formed to carry out the map work, a task that was extremely difficult and time consuming because of the difference in scales between the two maps. The team included John Cox who is also receiving a Bermuda Arts Council award this evening.
Eventually, she had a list of 4,000 sites on the Savage map that according to the modern map still had buildings on them. However those sites had to be visited in order to determine whether the buildings had been altered in any way. Together with the late Rosemary Clipper, then Chairman of the Historic Buildings Committee, she organized training courses for over a hundred volunteers who subsequently made those visits, taking photographs and creating a roof plan, check list and brief description of each building.
Once the information was compiled (and eventually computerized during that period of electronic technological transition) the question was, “What do we do with it?” As Margaret says, the information in its survey form, it could be very boring if not downright indigestible. And so the decision was made to create books that would feature the most interesting buildings parish by parish from an architectural point of view and give more detailed information about them.
Work on the books has been far reaching. The many volunteers Margaret has coordinated over the last twenty odd years have researched church assessment and parish records, wills, deeds and family papers so that writers and editors can use the information they have gleaned to create these wonderful books.
Margaret herself has contributed to the research. But once this phase is over and the writing has been drafted and edited for each volume, Margaret’s work is not over. As Thomas points out, she spends many, many hours checking the drafts, the editing, and the design and physical appearance of the books before they go to the printers.
As is well known, every successful team needs impetus and incentive if it is to last. Margaret has provided both. Thanks to her constant encouragement and direction, the team behind Bermuda’s Architectural Heritage Series is still going strong. The Pembroke Parish volume will be available in local stores shortly – just in time for Christmas. Meanwhile, two more parishes are to be covered: Warwick and Southampton before the series is complete.
Because of Margaret’s determination and dedication to this project, Bermuda has an invaluable record of its architectural heritage which otherwise could have been lost.
