Trustees and Regional Chairs

James Grierson, Chair

Kate Davey, Deputy Chair

Kate has been at the Bar for twenty-five years and practises from 2 Pump Court in the Temple. She read history and law at Christ’s College, Cambridge and was recently awarded an MA in Gothic architecture at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She is particularly interested in church architecture and Victorian Gothic.

Professor Neil Jackson RIBA FSA, Events

Neil Jackson is an architect and architectural historian and Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Liverpool. He has previously served as a trustee of both the Twentieth Century Society and the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, of which he was President in 2017-21. He was a founder member and first Honorary Secretary of the Avon Group of the The Victorian Society in 1978 and subsequently, in 1980-85 served as a member of the Main Committee and the General Purposes Sub-committee. Since 2016 he has sat on the Events Committee, which he now chairs. He has published widely on nineteenth-century architecture, including books on Bath, Saltaire and Japan, and has maintained a long-time interest in G E Street and the use of constructional polychromy. He lives in Westminster.

Lynn Pearcy, Finance

Prior to retirement in 2015 Lynn was with a major professional services firm for over 30 years, latterly as an audit partner advising on financial reporting. She has a particular interest in the Arts and Crafts movement.

Henry Sainty, Legal

Henry has been a solicitor for 25 years, working with clients in the not-for-profit, culture, media and sport sectors. His history degree in the 1980s fostered an abiding interest in historic buildings. He has been an active supporter of The Victorian Society talks, tours and other events for the past ten years, and has a particular interest in the social and historical context of Victorian buildings. He lives in west London with his wife Sophie (a long-standing and active volunteer member of the Society) and two young adult children. Any spare time is spent visiting towns and countryside in England and France with a box of guide books. Henry currently holds the role of the Society’s Legal Trustee.

Alan Davies, Non-executive

Alan Davies is a practising architect specialising in the conservation and adaptive re-use of historic buildings and the regeneration of historic environments. He is an architect director and heritage lead for a leading international practice of architects, engineers and designers. In that capacity, he has been involved in conserving and adapting a range of historic building types; and has prepared proposals for regenerating areas of historic towns and cities across the UK and abroad.

Alan’s interest in Victorian architecture and town planning was sparked as a student of architecture in Cardiff and has been sustained by being based for much of his career in Manchester – both cities owing their character to nineteenth century development, planning and architecture. Alan has a post-graduate qualification in town planning and is an RIBA registered conservation architect. Alan maintains a strong interest in the historic culture and architecture of his native Wales.

Alan has been a member of the Northern Buildings Committee – which comments on planning applications referred to the Society by planning authorities across the North and Wales – since 2008.

Iestyn Roberts, Non-executive

After a successful career in retail property, Iestyn is keen to devote time to his real passion – the historic environment. He has extensive experience of dealing with local campaigners, planning consultants, property developers, architects and historians and politicians. He is a longstanding Friend of the British Museum and of Westminster Abbey, is member of the Council for British Archaeology and the Cambrian Archaeological Association. In his youth he worked on a variety of archaeological digs. Iestyn is very familiar with the challenges of maintaining historic Victorian buildings, having taken charge of the maintenance of the Welsh Chapel at Clapham Junction, in addition to his experience of maintaining his Edwardian home. He also has considerable experience of leadership roles in voluntary organisations, allied to extensive commercial experience relating to aspects of financial stability, corporate governance and Board performance.

Ben Sims, Non-executive

Ben is Head of Fundraising at the National Churches Trust. His previous roles include working as a fundraiser for a homelessness charity, The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields, and in heritage at the Arts Council, encouraging donations and offers in lieu of inheritance tax of national treasures to the UK’s galleries, museums, universities, and libraries; he also worked on the export of cultural property, and administered export bans. Ben read English at Christ Church, Oxford, specialising as a medievalist. He volunteers at Emery Walker’s House, an Arts and Crafts house museum in Chiswick, and The Listening Place, a charity that combats suicide.

Tiffany Snowden, Non-executive

Tiffany is an accredited archaeologist and heritage consultant with over a decade’s experience in the planning, heritage, and historic environment sector. One of the youngest female professionals to achieve full membership of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, she is committed to providing a holistic approach to the adaptive re-use of historic buildings which, given her background in archaeology, incorporates consideration of potential below-ground archaeological impacts. Since 2021, Tiffany has worked as the Director of a small but thriving heritage consultancy based in Yorkshire providing expert advice on heritage-led property and land development schemes. Her personal and research interests include improving energy efficiency in historic buildings, the Arts and Crafts movement, and the sustainable conversion of traditional agricultural buildings.

Kit Wedd, Non-executive

In 1991 Kit became the The Victorian Society’s first Education Officer, working on campaigns for the restoration of the Albert Memorial and to encourage the conservation of ‘ordinary’ Victorian and Edwardian houses. She has written and edited many books and articles on nineteenth-century buildings, and is the author of The Victorian Society Book of the Victorian House. After three decades of working for various statutory bodies and in commercial planning consultancies, she founded the historic environment consultancy Spurstone Heritage Ltd in 2017.