Church Buildings Team Welcomes Two New Members

The South Wales dioceses are delighted to welcome two new members into our joint Monmouth-Llandaff church property team.

Paul Cascarini starts as Senior Buildings Surveyor in September, and along with a junior colleague whom he will help recruit, will take on all the Quinquennial inspections for church buildings and halls across the two dioceses which he will try to coordinate so all the inspections in a given MA happen at the same time to help the MA plan and prioritise. He will also be available to give a holistic comprehensive view of the MA’s needs and properties.

Calum Glanville-Ellis joins as the property team’s Grants and Fundraising Officer, to help MAs find funding of all sorts to finance their property and mission needs.

My name is Paul Cascarini, and I have recently been successful in my application for Senior Church Buildings Surveyor for the Diocese of Monmouth & Llandaff, reporting to James Laing. I am looking forward to joining the Team on September 2nd 2024 and meeting many of you as soon as I can.

My current role is Senior Conservation Surveyor for Cadw’s Properties in Care Team, where I lead a team covering South Wales which includes 3 regional managers, a project manager and 3 regional craft teams comprising of stonemasons and joiners.

My current region extends west from St. Davids Bishop’s Palace in Pembrokeshire, east to Tintern Abbey, and north to Strata Florida Abbey. Our role is to ensure that the monuments in State Care are well conserved, safe, and accessible for future generations to enjoy.

I have previously worked as Senior Building Surveyor with the National Trust twice, in the South West of England, and South West Wales. I have also worked as Property Maintenance Manager for English Heritage in the East Midlands region, Local Authority Conservation Officer for South Powys with Powys County Council, and also as Estate Building Surveyor on a private estate in County Durham. Earlier in my career I worked in NHS Estates, and started my career in architectural and surveying private practice.

I have full membership of both the Chartered Institute of Building, and Institute of Historic Building Conservation following a Post Graduate Diploma in Building Conservation by distance learning at Reading University.

With a strong professional career background in traditional and historic building conservation I have been privileged to have been given the opportunity to care for some of the most significant and often diverse range of traditional and historic buildings and monuments in Wales and England, to influence conservation best practice, ensure statutory compliance, monitor condition, diagnose defects, and prioritise sensitive change, and well specified timely repairs or remedial work, as well sympathetic and well-designed improvements to seize opportunities, and I am really passionate about what I do.

I am married to Lisa and have 2 grown-up children and 3 grandchildren. In my spare time, I enjoy live music, photography, cooking, following rugby, and travelling in our motorhome.

I am very much looking forward to joining the team and working with diocesan staff and hope to prove to be a good fit for this exciting new role in caring for our special places.

Calum Glanville-Ellis is a recent graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where he studied an Ma in Arts Management. During the course he found he had a particular interest and passion for fundraising.

After completing placements during his course with Taking Flight Theatre Company and National Youth Arts Wales. Calum entered onto a fundraising internship with National Youth Arts Wales through Arts & Business Cymru.

Calum regularly attends service at St Edwards in Roath where he first encountered fundraising for the church.

After hearing the appeal for fundraising assistance to fix the organ he volunteered his time and expertise. This was what lead Calum to apply for the position as Grants and Fundraising Officer.

“It’s fantastic to be able to tie both my professional career and faith together. I’m a firm believer in the gifts of the spirit and I feel very privileged to be able to use mine to serve the church and carrying out Gods work in communities across South Wales.”

Outside of his professional life Cal is a keen long-distance runner and regularly partakes in ultra marathons. He also enjoys music, reading, poetry, theatre, and spending time with family and loved ones.