It is with intense sadness, and a deep sense of loss that we have to report that Nigel Swift, Chairman of Heritage Action (HA) for 20 years, passed away on Monday evening. He had been living with prostate cancer for over 20 years, but had discovered during a recent stay in hospital that the cancer had spread. Despite this, his final weeks were full of laughter, surrounded by his family, and his final days at a wonderful hospice passed in tranquility and painlessness. 

Nigel Swift

Nigel Swift graduated in Economics and Politics (University of London) and was a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He has published articles and lectured at various universities on surveying-related topics. Following his early retirement in 2001, he expanded a keen interest in archaeological conservation issues. He was a co-founder and Chairman of UK and Ireland group Heritage Action which is dedicated to voicing the concerns of many ordinary members of the lay public on various matters relating to heritage conservation.

Nigel was a keen participant on the Head Heritage forums, and was known for his strong views against metal detectorists. Indeed, over the years he made few friends in that area and endured many extreme reactions to his views, including threats of violence, but as he once said – ‘What are they going to do to me? There is nothing they can do to me.’

Knowing that the end was near, Nigel requested that we post the following poem on his behalf:

Relative Ron

This is the story of Relative Ron,
Admittedly dead, but not really gone.
He explained what he meant as he breathed out his last
(He didn’t have long so he talked very fast):

“They say that the universe is without limit,
So clearly I’ll always be someplace within it.
And although it might seem that my time has now passed,
This can hardly be true in arrangements so vast:
For boffins contend that space-time is bent
And reverses on reaching an horizon-event.
So don’t look so gloomy, for clearly it’s plain
Right now in the future we’ll all meet again.”

Below are some of the early reactions to the news of Nigel’s passing, showing how well respected and loved he was among the amateur antiquarian community.

  • I’m so, so sorry to hear this! Absolutely gutted. I really loved that bloke. I’ll miss the daft old sod.

  • We ADORED Nigel. His refusenik righteousness, his fire, his intelligence, his curiosity, kindness and humanity. If you knew him you were lucky. And weren’t we so lucky?

  • The quintessential troublemaker, you’ll be missed Nigel. The twenty-plus years of your life hammering against heritage theft, unfettered metal detecting, vandals etc etc are testament to your spirit. The humour and passion you did it with came for free. My favourite memory is telling me to be calm when approaching people climbing stones at Avebury in one minute then angrily yelling “oi, you can’t climb that” two minutes later. Never shy in coming forward. Rock on mate.

  • He once told me he was working as a chartered accountant somewhere, and when he was taken ill and got a “six-months-to-live” diagnosis – his firm told him he need not come in and they’d give him full pay until he died… in the end, and this was some years later, they (as he put it) sued him for not dying  [I am sure the legal term is probably different].

  • Devastated. Even though we knew it was coming. I shall miss his phone calls, his quips, his laugh. I am not even sure of his age but first met him in person in 2000. We met in a pub on Salisbury Plain and conceived what eventually became Heritage Action, albeit I then refused to join. Nigel then came up with the meeting which took place at the ‘orse (the Uffington White Horse, which led to the formation of HA ).

There is so much more that could be said. Fare well on the other side Nigel. The world is a worse place without you…