A graduate in History and Italian from Magdalen College Oxford, Julian has worked in the field of historic buildings ever since. After being thwarted in his attempts to be a stone mason, he worked for the Victorian Society in London, then began a thesis with Howard Colvin on the palazzo style in Victorian architecture before being recruited to the listing of buildings in England. He compiled among others the lists of historic buildings in Faringdon and Watford before working on the listing in Wiltshire. The Blue Guide to Victorian Buildings was compiled at this time. His three children, Martha, Reuben and Agnes were born while he was in Wiltshire. In 1987 he moved to West Wales and was engaged on similar listing for Cadw, while living a community life with others centred on sustainability, self-sufficiency and the home-education of children. He co-founded the Brithdir Mawr community in 1993-4 and was there for nearly ten years, during which the community helped to further the cause of eco-housing by challenging planning restrictions in the Pembrokeshire National Park. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/found-britains-lost-tribe-1181028.html
In Wales the consultancy firm which he set up with David Witt - Penbryn Associates - covered large swathes of Wales for the Cadw listed building programme until the whole of the country had been resurveyed. At the same time he was working on the Buildings of Wales volumes (Pembrokeshire, then Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, both with Tom Lloyd and Robert Scourfield, finally Gwynedd, with Richard Haslam and Adam Voelcker) for which he was elected honorary member of the Royal Society of Architects in Wales in 2010. He has been a member of the Historic Buildings Advisory Council for Wales, the Fabric Advisory Committee for St Davids Cathedral and the Cathedrals and Churches Commission of the Church in Wales. He has engaged in research work on the nonconformist chapels of Wales for the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments Wales.
He moved to Somerset in 2009 to begin a three-year revision of Nikolaus Pevsner's volume on South and West Somerset, finding a base in the wonderful and welcoming town of Langport. This volume was finally launched in Taunton on November 19th and London on 9th December 2014. In June 2014 he moved to Bradford on Avon, where he had lived in the 1970s, to begin the revision of the Buildings of England volume for Wiltshire. He became President of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society for the year 2018-19 in May 2018. The revised Buildings of England volume for Wiltshire was published in June 2021. In 2024 his chapter on Sir G.G. Scott's restoration of St Davids Cathedral was published in The Condition of Menevia, edited by Jonathan Wooding and Wyn Evans. Also in 2024 he became a member of the Fabric Advisory Committee of Wells Cathedral.
In Wales the consultancy firm which he set up with David Witt - Penbryn Associates - covered large swathes of Wales for the Cadw listed building programme until the whole of the country had been resurveyed. At the same time he was working on the Buildings of Wales volumes (Pembrokeshire, then Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, both with Tom Lloyd and Robert Scourfield, finally Gwynedd, with Richard Haslam and Adam Voelcker) for which he was elected honorary member of the Royal Society of Architects in Wales in 2010. He has been a member of the Historic Buildings Advisory Council for Wales, the Fabric Advisory Committee for St Davids Cathedral and the Cathedrals and Churches Commission of the Church in Wales. He has engaged in research work on the nonconformist chapels of Wales for the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments Wales.
He moved to Somerset in 2009 to begin a three-year revision of Nikolaus Pevsner's volume on South and West Somerset, finding a base in the wonderful and welcoming town of Langport. This volume was finally launched in Taunton on November 19th and London on 9th December 2014. In June 2014 he moved to Bradford on Avon, where he had lived in the 1970s, to begin the revision of the Buildings of England volume for Wiltshire. He became President of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society for the year 2018-19 in May 2018. The revised Buildings of England volume for Wiltshire was published in June 2021. In 2024 his chapter on Sir G.G. Scott's restoration of St Davids Cathedral was published in The Condition of Menevia, edited by Jonathan Wooding and Wyn Evans. Also in 2024 he became a member of the Fabric Advisory Committee of Wells Cathedral.
