Historic England Advisory Committee

Membership

Professor Helena Hamerow - Chair

David Adshead
Patricia Brown
Stafford Critchlow 
George Ferguson
Mark Gardiner
Peter Hinton
David Jacques OBE
Professor Peter Mandler
Jonathan Marsden
Robert Sackville-West
Stephen Schwendel Smith
Hilary Taylor
Professor Tarek Teba
Alasdair Travers
Zac Tudor
Cordula Zeidler

Biographies

Professor Helena Hamerow, Chair

Helena Hamerow is Professor of Early Medieval Archaeology at the University of Oxford. Her research interests lie in the settlements, farming practices and economy of northwest Europe during the Early Middle Ages. She is a Fellow of St Cross College, where she was Vice-Master from 2005 to 2008, and an Honorary Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.

Helena has previously served on the Board of Visitors of the Ashmolean Museum and the Board of Curators of the Bodleian Libraries and was an elected member of the Council of the University of Oxford from 2016 to 2020. She is a Fellow of the British Academy, a former President of the Society for Medieval Archaeology and Vice-President of the Royal Archaeological Institute.

She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Oxford Archaeology and the Board of Visitors of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. Helena is a Historic England Commissioner and a member of the Historic Estates Conservation Committee.

David Adshead

David is currently a Commissioner of The Royal Hospital Chelsea and a director of the educational charity The Attingham Trust, for which he runs an annual summer school and a biennial course on The London House.

He trained as an architect and art historian, working for many years for The National Trust where he served initially as a Vernacular Buildings Surveyor and finally as Head Curator and Architectural Historian.

He is a former Chairman of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain and retired as Director of the Georgian Group at the end of March 2025.

Stafford Critchlow RIBA FRSA

Stafford Critchlow is an architect and director of international practice Wilkinson Eyre. Many of his projects have involved listed buildings or new buildings in sensitive locations, including the Forum at the University of Exeter with a long-span timber grid shell roof in a protected landscape, the Earth Sciences building in Oxford, and two repurposing projects in Bristol: ‘We the Curious’ science centre in a former GWR goods shed and the university Fry Building as a new home for the School of Mathematics.

He grew up in a 1960s self-build project in Lincolnshire, recently listed Grade II (2023).

Stafford was a founding trustee of the Higher Education Design Quality Forum (HEDQF) and previously sat on design review panels for CABE, Islington, and Design: South East.

Professor Mark Gardiner

Mark Gardiner is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Lincoln. He previously worked at Queen’s University Belfast where he was joint head of Archaeology-Palaeoecology, and before that was deputy director of Archaeology South-East at University College London.

He has been President of the Society for Medieval Archaeology and of the Medieval Settlement Research Group. He was Vice-President of Ruralia – the body for medieval and later rural archaeology in Europe – and has served as Vice-President of the Royal Archaeological Institute.

Mark has a long-standing research interest in both excavated and standing buildings. He has directed excavations in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Norway, and has studied standing structures in Britain and Greenland.

Dr David Jacques OBE

Dr David Jacques is a garden historian and a cultural landscape specialist. He was the Inspector of Historic Parks and Gardens at English Heritage 1987-93, has advised Historic Royal Palaces since 1993, and was a trustee of Chiswick House and Grounds 2005-19.

He is on the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee for Cultural Landscapes, has undertaken several missions for the World Heritage Centre, and was on the World Heritage Panel 2020-21 and 2022-23.

He is the author of ten books, and in 2022 was awarded an OBE for services to garden history and conservation.

Professor Peter Mandler

Peter Mandler is Professor of Modern Cultural History at the University of Cambridge and Bailey Lecturer in History at Gonville and Caius College. He is a past president of both the Royal Historical Society and the Historical Association, a Fellow of the British Academy, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He currently serves on the Councils of the Historical Association and the British Academy.

He is an historian of modern Britain with particular interests in national identity, heritage, education, the humanities and the social sciences (including in the wider English-speaking world) and in the place of history in culture and the media.

His books include The Fall and Rise of the Stately Home (1997), History and National Life (2002) and, edited with Astrid Swenson, From Plunder to Preservation: Britain and the Heritage of Empire, c. 1800-1940 (2013) and, edited with Simon Gunn and Otto Saumarez Smith, The Modern British City, 1945-2000 (2025).

In 2026 he will give the James Ford Lectures in British History at the University of Oxford (on the language of social science in everyday life) and the Neale Lecture at University College London (on the study of history at British universities).

Sir Jonathan Marsden KCVO, FSA

Jonathan Marsden was Director of the Royal Collection and Surveyor of The Queen’s Works of Art from 2010 to 2017, having previously served as Deputy Surveyor since 1996. Prior to this he worked for the National Trust for eleven years as a Historic Buildings Representative in North Wales and Oxfordshire. He has served as a trustee of several arts and heritage organisations including Historic Royal Palaces, the Georgian Group, the Art Fund and the City & Guilds of London Art School. He has published and lectured widely on sculpture and the decorative arts and is the author of the forthcoming catalogue of European Sculpture in the Royal Collection.

Robert Sackville-West

Robert Sackville-West studied at Oxford University, where he read History, and at London Business School, before a career in publishing, creating illustrated books for an international market. As executive chair of Knole Estates, the property and investment company which – in parallel with the National Trust – cares for Knole, he has experience of land management, planning, conservation management, listed buildings and public access.

Since 2021, Robert has also chaired the Kent Community Foundation, which raises money for and distributes grants to, some 400 volunteer-based charities in Kent. He has been involved with education in both the private and state sector, as a governor at Sevenoaks School and Knole Academy, and as a former UK board director of the International Baccalaureate. He is Vice-Chairman of the Royal Oak Foundation, the US-based fund-raising affiliate of the National Trust.

Robert has a great interest in British history and is committed to communicating that interest. His experience at Knole led him to write two critically acclaimed books on aspects of English history: Inheritance (2010); and The Disinherited (2014). His most recent book, The Searchers (2021) is broader in scope. Telling the stories of Britain’s quest to recover, identify and honour the missing soldiers of the First World War, it tackles the enduring impact on British society of the First World War.

Stephen Schwendel Smith

Stephen is a Partner at Wright & Wright Architects, bringing a passion for working with existing buildings and new-build projects in sensitive settings. Stephen’s area of expertise and research interests are sustainable design, supporting empowerment for community projects, and placemaking. An understanding of context in the broadest sense, underpins this approach, from understanding the values, community and physical fabric of a place.

These interests are evident in recent projects that include Magdalen College Library, Oxford, the British Academy, the Enterprise Hub for Royal Academy of Engineering, Lambeth Palace Library and Pallant House Gallery.

Stephen taught a Design Studio at the University of Cambridge for five years, based on public buildings. He was a partner to the Empowering Design Practices research project with the Open University that explores our understanding of, and the transformation of, Places of Worship.

Dr Hilary Taylor

An art, architectural, and landscape historian, Hilary studied at the University of East Anglia – attracted by the 1960s promise of an egalitarian higher education and by the Brutalist architecture of Denys Lasdun – followed by a PhD at Nottingham University.

Hilary Taylor Landscape Associates specialised in research, conservation, restoration and sustainable development of major historic places, including World Heritage Sites, deer parks, public parks, allotments, and churchyards. Outcomes included planting schemes, arboricultural and ecological plans, improvement of land-use, soil structure, and drainage, renewal of waterbodies, views, vistas, and circulation patterns, new and restored landscape features, from hermitages to fountains, visitor centres to bandstands. Critical to success were management and interpretation plans.

Hilary was a Churchill Fellow in 1994; HLF Expert Panel for Historic Buildings and Land, 2000-2008; HLF Project Monitor; Trustee of the Horniman Museum, 2010-2014; Church Buildings Council 2008-2021, there focusing on ancient and veteran trees, church bells and the craftsmanship of church furniture and fittings; since 2020, Cathedral and Major Church Projects Support Panel.

Hilary’s research explores the cultural and political significance of designed landscapes. Publications include: 'British Impressionism: Landscape Images and Attitudes'; and 'The Public Park as a Metaphor for a Civilised Society'. Most recently working on, 'Thomas Tresham: Elizabeth’s loyal recusant, philosopher, builder, garden maker' and ‘To see a World in a Grain of Sand: Designs on the Landscape’.

Professor Tarek Teba

Dr Tarek Teba is an Associate Professor in Architectural Heritage at the School of Architecture, Art and Design, University of Portsmouth and the Chair for ICOMOS UK Digital Technology National Committee. Tarek is the Course leader of MA Architecture: Building and Heritage Conservation and the co-chair of the University of Portsmouth Heritage Research Hub.

Tarek’s experience in heritage valuation, sustainable development and adaptive reuse has been developing through practice and research activities, establishing national and international networks and activities around the conservation of architectural and cultural heritage, and community engagement. His contribution to the field is demonstrated in linking theories to practice to develop sustainable regeneration solutions for the heritage context, as well as in bringing together academics and professionals to promote conservation and regeneration debates.

Tarek’s research concerns the conservation of tangible and intangible heritage through creating the balance between contemporary values via community engagement and historic, aesthetic and cultural values. Tarek explores methodological approaches to preserve the cultural and contemporary social values embedded in heritage assets and cities, informing regeneration and adaptive reuse strategies. He uses community engagement and cultural mapping as an informing tool, and virtual modelling and digital heritage approaches as a vehicle to deliver adaptation and development strategies.

Alasdair Travers

Alasdair studied architecture at the University of Cambridge and the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. In his current role as Partner and Head of Design at Purcell, his focus is on designing buildings that enhance our historic places and serve the community and the environment.

Alasdair has particular expertise in masterplanning historic places and designing complex building programmes in sensitive environments. His architectural experience ranges from major museums and galleries to residential masterplans, universities, and national public institutions.

Recent projects include masterplans for Burghley House, Ely Cathedral, and Bab al Azab, the historic citadel in Cairo, as well as architectural projects with the National Gallery, St Catherine’s College, Oxford, and the Temple Church.

Zac Tudor

For the past 22 years Zac has worked for Sheffield City Council's Regeneration Design Team. Here he has had responsibility for city-wide design and coordination of public realm delivery within the placemaking agenda. His focus has been landscape design, spatial master planning, and place-making, helping to maximise the city’s resilience to flooding and climate change, while encouraging new economic regeneration that reflects Sheffield’s distinctive historic character.

He has established himself as the key influence in developing Sheffield's identity as a city of distinctive high-quality public realm promoting its uncompromising sense of place and character. His use of horticulture, local natural materials, craftsmanship and art helps to draw on local heritage to create something that is identifiably Sheffield.

Today his interests turn to the re-purposing and changing perceptions of city as a place, identifying character and maintaining and emphasising the historic value, which when combined start to create new incentives to live, work and visit our urban centres.

Cordula Zeidler

Cordula Zeidler is a Practice Director at conservation firm Donald Insall Associates and leads their London Heritage Consultancy team. She has twenty years of experience as a heritage and design advisor, and has led heritage and townscape strategy, design development and planning negotiations for many complex sites in London and nationally. Among her clients are London’s Great Estates, private developers, and charitable and cultural organisations.

Cordula is a Chair of the London Borough of Islington’s Design Review Panel, and she sits on the Design Review Panel for the London Borough of Lambeth. She was educated at the Bartlett School, the Sorbonne in Paris, and Berlin’s Humboldt University and has a special interest in the architecture of the twentieth century.

Cordula has been a member of the IHBC for most of her career and was previously a project director for Publica, a conservation officer at Islington Council and an advisor for the Twentieth Century Society. Cordula has lectured at Cambridge, Harvard, and the Bartlett School, and written on new architecture and building conservation for a range of British and European publications.

Index of Agenda Items

If you would like to obtain copies of any meeting papers, please email us at governance@historicengland.org.uk.

Declarations of Interest

Registers of Interest are maintained for Commission, the Historic England Advisory Committee, the London Advisory Committee and for the Historic England Executive Team. They record any significant, ongoing interest that a member may have and are reviewed by the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee twice each year.

If a member has an interest in a specific case to be discussed at a meeting this should be declared at the start of the meeting and recorded in the minutes.