I had contact with Ted Cullinan in the early 1990s when we were discussing the possibility of building a new park office for the Brecon Beacons national park, of which I was chief executive. Sadly that proposal did not come to fruition but he invited me to visit the Fountains Abbey visitor centre with him that had just been completed.
His close involvement in his buildings, from conception to completion and subsequent use, was very evident. I remember him telling me that a number of craftsmen who had worked on the building made plaques with their names on to be attached unobtrusively to parts of it, rather as medieval craftsmen left their mark on the cathedrals they worked on.
A nice story which was made more poignant by his further telling me that the National Trust, as owner of the building, had ordered their removal.
