Below are profiles for the speakers on Tuesday 8th October, at the 2024 WHUK annual conference.
Dave Crabtree, Cornwall Councillor & Cornish Mining WHS Chair – Dave is now into his fourth and final year as Chair of The Cornwall and West Devon Mining World Heritage Board and represents Illogan and Portreath on Cornwall Council.
Tamsin Daniel, Protected & Historic Landscapes Manager, Cornwall Council – Tamsin is the Protected & Historic Landscapes Manager within the Sustainable Growth and Development Directorate at Cornwall Council, responsible for overseeing the management of the Cornwall and Tamar Valley National Landscapes, the Devon and Cornwall Mining World Heritage Site and the Cornwall Council’s Strategic Historic Environment service. Tamsin began her career in heritage at the Victoria & Albert Museum, before returning to Cornwall to take up the role of Curator of Art & Exhibitions at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro. In 2001, she became the Heritage Officer for Penwith District Council and when Cornwall become a unitary authority in 2009, joined Cornwall Council’s Culture & Creative Industries team, leading on such capital projects as the redevelopment of King Edward Mine, the oldest, best preserved mine within the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site with the most complete collection of 20th century tin dressing plant in the world, much of which has been restored to working order. In 2019, Tamsin became Cornwall Council’s Principal Historic Environment Officer where she has led on the adoption and delivery of Cornwall’s historic environment strategy Heritage at the Heart of an Evolving Cornwall: A Strategy for Cornwall’s Historic Environment (2022 – 2030) | Let’s Talk Cornwall. She has served as President of the South Western Federation of Museums & Art Galleries, has represented the South West on the Board of the Museums Association and from 2013 to 2021, she was on the National Lottery Heritage Fund Committee for the South West and then London & South.
Jason Jones-Hall, Director of Development, Five10Twelve – Five10Twelve works in partnership with local and national government, national bodies and cultural and heritage organisations to boost productivity, local growth and support communities. Current projects include CulturalPlacemaking.com, featuring a suite of tools and resources to support culture and heritage-led regeneration and placemaking. Five10Twelve is the national delivery partner for the Cultural Development Fund (CDF) Peer Learning Network on behalf of DCMS and Arts Council England, representing twenty culture and heritage-led regeneration projects across the length and breadth of England. As Director of Development, Jason has previously acted as Project Director for Pioneering Places – the largest of the Heritage Fund’s Great Place schemes – and regularly speaks at events on heritage-led regeneration, community engagement and site activation strategies for organisations including National Lottery Heritage Fund, The Heritage Alliance and the Local Government Association (LGA).
Dr Patrick Newberry FRSA – Patrick Newberry is a passionate architectural historian who has lectured and published widely on country houses, the architecture of Cornwall and Surrey and lost houses of Surrey and Cornwall. His PhD thesis examined the life and works of J.P. St Aubyn, a nineteenth-century Cornishman who established a prolific architectural practice and he is the author of The Cornish Country House, published in 2023. Living in one of Cornwall’s finest rectories which he restored from near ruin ten years ago, Patrick is Chairman of the Cornish Buildings Group, an amenity society established in the late 1960s to promote good new architectural design and good building conservation in Cornwall. He is also a Historic England Commissioner, a Vice Chairman of the Georgian Group and a member of the Fabric Advisory Committee of Truro Cathedral.
Adrian Farmer, Heritage Coordinator, Derwent Valley Mills WHS – Adrian has for 20 years been coordinating all heritage aspects relating to the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site – from planning responses to research, and engagement to promotion. He received the British Empire Medal in 2019 and was Highly Commended in the UK’s first Tourism Superstar Awards in 2012, for his work in this area. He has written eight local history books.
Laura Giles, Managing Director, Screen Cornwall – Having started in corporate communications and advertising, Laura studied for an MBA and worked as a management consultant, making short films on the side, before moving to the British Film Institute in 2011. After moving to Cornwall in 2014 she has run projects for the British Film Commission, Raising Films, the UK Film Centre in Cannes and taken a delegation to the GREAT Festival of Creativity in Shanghai, as well as working for an app company and as a creative business adviser for a European funded programme supporting the creative sector. Laura set up Screen Cornwall in 2019 and also continues to work as a producer of short and long form content through her company Storm Force Films. She is on the Board of Cornwall & Isles of Scilly LEP’s Digital Skills Partnership and a member of its Creative Industries Taskforce. Laura is passionate about sustainable growth and one of the founders of Goodfest Cornwall CIC.
Alison Lightbown, Head of Schools and Community Partnerships, HRP and Tower of London – Alison is Head of Schools and Community Partnerships at Historic Royal Palaces (HRP). Alison is a passionate audience advocate committed to making heritage and the arts engaging, inspiring, relevant and inclusive for all. Alison has over 25 years’ experience in heritage/arts learning and community engagement having previously worked at the Museum of the Home, the Barbican and V&A. Since 2014 she has led the strategic development of the schools, community, family and youth programmes at HRP’s London palaces and Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland. Alison is currently leading the transformation of the Tower of London’s learning and community programmes, onsite, offsite and online. She is an experienced board member having held trustee roles at Fulham Palace, Heritage Education Trust, Centre for Studies of Home (QMUL) and Discover Hackney.
Amy McElhinney, Cornish National Landscape – Amy is the Project Manager for Cornwall National Landscape’s “A Monumental Improvement Project”, supported generously by The National Heritage Lottery Fund. Amy returns to the heritage sector following a career in law, in which she specialised in serving the Charitable and Social Enterprise sector. Having read Archaeology at undergraduate level, focussing on heritage interpretation in post-industrial Cornwall for her dissertation, Amy is thrilled to be working on a Project centred on the unique archaeology, landscapes and communities which inspire her.
Steve Holley, Cornish Metals Inc – Steve Holley joined Cornish Metals in July 2022 as Feasibility Study Manager, managing completion of technical reporting and also supporting the mine dewatering and refurbishment projects. He also acts as Substitute Mine Manager when required, to support underground operations. His current focus is on the underground mine design and optimisation of the process flowsheet. Steve is from Cornwall, having studied locally at Camborne School of Mines and then working in West Australian mining operations before moving back to the UK. Prior to joining South Crofty, he has worked as a Mining and Geotechnical consultant and also mine backfill projects both overseas and within the UK. He makes the most of being in Cornwall by getting out and about on the coastline at every opportunity with his family.
Tom Agar, CBA Consultants – Tom is Principal Consultant at CBA Studios, leading the organisation’s business planning and place economics team. He has almost fifteen years of private, public, and third-sector experience across built and natural heritage contemporary arts and culture, and placemaking and regeneration. His work includes visioning, strategy, business planning and feasibility, as well as organisational change and governance, for destinations and assets as diverse as Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, Morecambe Winter Gardens, the Arkwright Society’s Cromford Mills, and the Horniman Museum.
Joe Perry, The Flow Country WHS – Joe is a project manager with experience in climate change adaptation, green finance, and nature restoration. From June 2018 to November 2019, he served as the Project Coordinator for the Flow Country World Heritage Site initiative, leading the technical evaluation stage of the World Heritage Site bid and playing a supporting role through the full nomination stage. He also managed an exchange program between the Flow Country and Finnish World Heritage Sites Old Rauma, and Sammallahdenmäki. Joe currently manages large-scale environmental projects for The Highland Council, focusing on areas such as coastal adaptation and emissions reduction. He is the lead author of the Council’s first Ecology Strategy and represents The Council on the innovative Flow Country Green Finance Initiative. In terms of academic background, Joe holds an MSc in Sustainable Energy Solutions from the University of the Highlands and Islands, where his studies focused on the relationship between climate change, renewable energy, and local development. He also holds an MSc in Environment, Heritage, and Policy from Stirling University and a BA (Hons) in History from the same institution. In addition to his project management work, Joe collaborates remotely with Turku University of Applied Sciences on stormwater management initiatives and is pursuing a PhD in Water Engineering through Aalto University.
The 2024 WHUK Annual Conference is supported by:
