Bil left East Sussex County Council in 1987 to go into private practice.
By this time, he and his team had almost completed the layout and planting of the Nash garden.
His one regret is that he was not there to see the lifting of a black tarmac road, which had been laid in front of the western side of the Pavilion, bisecting two great lawns. This was later removed, and the work completed in 1990.
One of Bil's final projects while in private practice was Rotherfield Hall, an extended Tudor mansion with formal gardens, terrace and kitchen garden by Inigo Thomas. The garden had become derelict due to years of neglect, and Bil spent several years coaxing it back to life. The ironstone used to construct the garden had been quarried on site, and Bil opened up new seams in the old quarry, with a mill to cut the stone, a bankering shop and two masons dedicated to the task.
Bil retired in 1992, and now lives in Eastbourne, where he is fulfilling another of his talents by writing a novel. The only other ambition he lists is ‘to carry on breathing'.
He counts himself as lucky to have been involved with the restoration of gardens of national importance. Undoubtedly, it is the gardens themselves that have been lucky: without Bil's quiet dedication and his extraordinary gift for making the right connections, our landscape heritage today would be that much poorer.
Sources
Mount, William. Personal interview, 27 February 2008.
Mount, William, ‘Hestercombe Renascent' in Gertrude Jekyll: artist, gardener, craftswoman, ed. by Michael J. Tooley (Witton-le-Wear: Michaelmas Books, 1984).
Mount, William, Historic Gardens Trust (Sussex) 1980-1996 (Florida: Kinane Corporation, 1996).
Further reading
Hinze, Virginia, ‘The Re-Creation of John Nash's Regency Gardens at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton', Garden History, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Summer, 1996), 45-53.
Pryce, Roy, Rotherfield Hall: History and Renaissance (London: AGL Wright, 2002).