Ballot Archive

03 Nov 2022

Candidate Details

Candidate Name

Leigh Alston

Academic degrees, honours etc.

MA (Oxon.)

Profession or occupation

Architectural historian

Grounds for election

Leigh Alston is an independent architectural historian. He won a scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he read PPE and served as President of the Society of Bibliophiles, graduating in 1984. After restoring a house in Suffolk, he left a job in international relations to record timber-framed buildings and translate medieval documents. He spent the next 20 years teaching evening classes and weekend residential courses for Cambridge University’s Department of Continuing Education. He also taught for many years on the Department of Archaeology’s medieval history course under the directorship of Catherine Hills and later Carenza Lewis, while working as the in-house building archaeologist for Suffolk County Council. He has published widely, including the National Trust’s guidebook to Lavenham Guildhall, and in 1993 he co-founded the Suffolk Historic Buildings Group, serving as chairman for 13 years. Television credits include ‘Grand Designs’ and Michael Wood’s ‘Story of England’.

Signatories

The following Fellows have signed this Blue Paper