Interesting about the basement being big enough for a 15m glider.
When Costin built his house he first built the jig for the roof trusses from concrete blocks. The trusses were then used as simple trusses for his workshop and paired for the house to give a sort of Dutch barn effect.
A great believer in wood for structures, he held the view that plastics were for fairing and fillets. The last man I've ever seen who carried a slide rule in his pocket.
I never heard him mention Airspeed and I don't recall him being mentioned in Nevil Shute's autobiography, 'Slide Rule', although it is a long time since I've read it.