The Trustees of Ledbury Places all live locally and bring a wealth of skills and experience to the charity. Since the charity’s inception, our trustees have been extremely proactive and have already carried out extensive restoration work on both The Barrett Browning Institute and The Old Grammar School.
Our trustees
Mark Waller
Mark returned to the UK in 2010 after 20 years living and working on the Continent and chose to make his new home in Ledbury. The obvious appeal as Herefordshire’s pre-eminent market town with its historic centre, a vibrant high street and welcoming community making it an easy choice. After a career in engineering and telecoms, he is now enjoying the opportunity to play a part within his local community. He was delighted to be invited to join Ledbury Places as Chair in 2015, alongside his other roles as Deputy Chair of Wye Valley NHS Trust and Chair of Herefordshire Mind, the local mental health charity associated with Mind nationally.
Melissa Hawker
Melissa moved to Herefordshire in 2007, and lives just outside Ledbury. Being part of a thriving community has always been important to her, she was a school governor for many years in Cambridgeshire and involved in various community projects. Her eclectic career has included working in retail and the Civil Service but mostly as a counsellor and coach for a small management consultancy, a business development manager for the Careers Research and Advisory Centre, a Cambridge-based educational charity, and a freelance development trainer. Now retired, she hopes that her experience in organizing events, recruiting members and raising sponsorship, together with her communication skills, can be put to good use!
Stuart Houghton
Stuart trained as a potter at Birmingham College of Art and design before establishing the Collection Gallery specialising in contemporary craft, and a successful gift manufacturing business in the city. He moved everything to Ledbury in the early 1980s; family, gallery and works. 40 years after leaving college he went back to his roots, producing pots by hand on a traditional wheel. He has taught in schools and helped set up a pottery for the young people with learning difficulties at Salter’s Hill. In 2012 he and Peter Arscott set up Belatrova, making furniture and ceramics, in Ledbury. He has now passed his pottery business over to Fleen Doran, and is supposedly ‘retired’ He is also a trustee of Ledbury Area Development Trust.
Clive Jupp
Clive moved from the Guildford area to Ledbury in 1991 and lives in the town. The move to Ledbury gave Clive the opportunity to get involved with local issues and organisations; working in London for 17 years before arriving in Ledbury meant he had no time for such activities. Clive was on Ledbury Town Council for 20 years; he is still part of Ledbury in Bloom, Ledbury Carnival, Ledbury Community Association, Ledbury Area Development Trust and Ledbury & Strömstad Twinning Association. Now semi-retired Clive is reducing his other commitments to provide time for Ledbury Places. He spent 22 years in various IT roles and since moving on from IT he has been a requirements analyst working on the initial definition stages on a range of major projects.
Christine Tustin
Christine returned to Ledbury in 2014. Her career had been in corporate and travel PR with the Heart of England Tourist Board and managing special projects, events and publications on behalf of the English Tourist Board and the British Tourist Authority. Her interests lie in architecture and design and she has an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art (London University) and a post graduate certificate in historic conservation from Oxford University. She has been involved in many amenity societies, and is currently company secretary for Ledbury & District Civic Society. Believing that visitor promotion is essential to Ledbury’s economic wellbeing, she wrote the tourism section of the Ledbury Town Plan and sits on the working party.
Al Braithwaite
Al moved to Herefordshire in 2017 and lives in Colwall just north of Ledbury. Being involved in local communities is important for Al, following a significant career in local government. During her career she ran a large property department, led significant change programmes and mentored colleagues and acted as a corporate management consultant. As a trained project and programme manager, she wants to use her skills and leadership experience in helping maintain for the community’s benefit critical local landmarks in the beautiful and vibrant town of Ledbury.
Gill Rivers
Gill was born and bred in Herefordshire, and now lives on the outskirts of Hereford city. Gill was contracted to work for Ledbury Places on a freelance basis in December 2017 to provide a Development Officer and administrative supporting role to Ledbury Places. Gill has an established background and proven experience of over thirty years in senior level PA support, secretarial services, office administration, project and event management before setting up her own business in 2006. In her spare time, Gill enjoys walking, cooking, running and golf.
Would you like to become a trustee?
We are an enthusiastic team and enjoy working together but we are always looking to expand our collective skills and expertise by inviting new people to join the board of trustees. If you have a passion of Ledbury and its heritage we would love to hear from you. We are especially keen to hear from individuals with a background in the following areas:
- Building Conservation
- Project Management
- Finance
- Social Media Management
- Website Management