Towering achievement

EPHRAIM — Medieval Welsh princes. A modern-day chicken farm. And Utah's own Traditional Building Skills Institute.

At first glance, these things might not seem like they have much in common.

But when you are working with old-fashioned materials and techniques, the uncommon tends to be normal, said Russ Mendenhall, director of TBSI. And that's how the institute, based at Snow College in Ephraim, got involved with the restoration of a Welsh tower house this spring.

Founded in 1996, TBSI is all about teaching "the use of traditional building skills in new construction and in preserving and restoring historic buildings." Throughout the year, it sponsors hands-on workshops on various techniques, such as stained glass, wood carving, stonework, wood furniture making and masonry restoration.

For the past two years, TBSI has taken a group of masonry students to England to work on the restoration of a hundred-year-old wall in Bacup, a little town northeast of Manchester.

This year, the group wanted to branch out, maybe go to Wales, said John Lambert, chairman of the board of TBSI and owner of a company called Abstract Masonry Restoration Inc., with offices in Salt Lake City and Boston. But finding someone who will let a group of students come and work on their centuries-old building isn't as easy as opening the Yellow Pages.

It turns out that Lambert's wife, Julie, is "a huge fan of Welsh history." She had read a book called "Here Be Dragons," by Sharon Kay Penman, that told the story of Llywelyn The Great, a 13th-century Welsh lord, and she tracked down a Web site that told the history of the prince and the tower house he built in Abergwengregwyn, on the north coast of Wales.

The Web site told how Brian and Kathryn Pritchard Gibson "accidentally" bought Llywelyn's tower house when they thought they were simply buying a chicken farm, and how they were now involved in an extensive — and expensive — restoration project.

Lambert tracked down an e-mail address, but for months there was no response. "They probably wondered what these crazy Americans wanted," said Mendenhall.

Finally Lambert called them, "and one thing led to another. We found a host family to stay with that lived 15 miles away," and the group — nine students and their two leaders — was off to Wales to see Pen Y Bryn — the prince's tower.