As an architect, I’m passionate about old buildings and helping their owners keep them fit for modern living and modern use. I know what it’s like for small congregations to try to keep up with maintaining their church buildings without forgetting their mission – and I love to be involved with them. I’m also concerned about green issues and one of my new projects is the design and build of a small private chapel in straw‐bale construction with a reciprocal framed roof. I’ve also got a few projects and potential projects in London – all small‐scale extensions for homeowners on a budget.
Setting up on my own at the age when many people retire is a new adventure. I’ve worked with my late husband in our partnership Robert and Anne Netherwood, done an 8‐year stint with him setting up and running the Home Advisory Service in Dodoma Tanzania, and helped him set up the practice again when we returned to the UK. Changing hats, I was ordained in 1991 and spent 16 years looking after three very rural parishes in North Shropshire. I retired from the parishes when Rob was diagnosed with cancer, and helped him set up Greenspace Architects Ltd with Kevin Slack. I worked freelance for Greenspace until 2015, and now I have my own Chartered Practice – working from home
I’ve been very lucky to have Andy Hales helping me as a freelance assistant for three years until April 2019. Andy recently completed his RIBA Part 2 studies at the College of Alternative Technology in Machynlleth and has taught me a great deal about straw bale construction, hemp-crete insulation and other environmentally friendly building techniques.
I’m a member of the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and the Green Register, and I’m on the RIBA Conservation Register. In December 2017 I received accreditation from the RIBA as a Conservation Architect.