We're delighted to announce the 2026 cohort of SPAB Fellows and Scholars. SPAB's unique programmes for those pursuing careers in heritage conservation see four people with established crafts trade careers (Fellows) and four mid-career architects, planners, engineers and surveyors (Scholars) undertake an intensive nine-month learning journey.
Both groups will be immersed in SPAB's conservation philosophy on sites across the country guided by top experts introducing them to current projects and their challenges. Visits will cover everything from palace rooftops with Historic England inspectors to hands-on thatching with lifelong craftspeople.
Congratulations to the eight who have been selected.
Fellows
Grace Impesi
Stonemason
Grace works at Durham Cathedral with SPAB Fellows Gary Holiday (2018) and Luke O'Hanlon (2019). Grace has dug clay and harvested timber for natural build projects, done dry stone walling in Cyprus, repaired stone floors in Transylvania and organised a mini working party in Normandy and a carving workshop at home in Italy. Grace has met many Fellows as they visit the stone workshop at Durham Cathedral and enjoys discussing a good lime mix.
Hannah Bee
Boat restorer/Carpenter, Millwright Fellow
Hannah taught music in London schools for over 25 years, during which time they built a music studio in an old glass factory. They have refurbished houses and boats, including the 150 year old riveted Dutch barge on which they live. Han worked on timber framed building repair projects in the USA and led a natural build project building a Grunbig Norwegian-style bunkhouse in round timber, straw bale and lime render. Han enjoys furniture repair which is in the family, as well as arc and stick welding. They worked as a firework pyrotechnician and enjoys sailing.
Matt James
Plasterer
Matt works with Fellow Paul Walters (2017) at Just Lime. After renovating properties in his own time, a career change saw Matt gravitating towards general construction and then heritage plaster work. He has toured Europe playing drums and percussion in bands for over 25 years, writes, produces and teaches locally and in his spare time volunteers as a football coach for his local under-9s team.
Tom Jones
Plasterer
Tom followed his father into the family plastering business with a traditional apprenticeship in modern plastering. Travel led him to heritage work in the south east which he has brought back to Liverpool; a city he is passionate about. Here he races on the Mersey with the Liverpool Yacht Club and lives on a wide beam canal boat that he restored. Tom enjoys music and plays the guitar.
Scholars
Emily Ducas
Architect
Emily is a chartered structural engineer who has always had a passion for historic buildings and has sought to weave this into her professional and personal life. For the past seven years Emily has worked in heritage teams at Conisbee in London and Elliott & Co in Edinburgh, working on historic building projects. Emily’s favourite days at work are those when she returns to the office in such a buzz having time spent on site crawling through an attic or floor void. Since purchasing a tenement flat, Emily has got more involved in practical activities, taking up furniture restoration, repairing an Edwardian chair and learning new crafts like curtain making and caning.
Holly Whiting
Architectural assistant
After completing her BA Degree in Norwich, Holly joined LSI Architects in Norwich as a Part 1 Architectural Assistant and continued working at the practice for four days a week for three years while studying for her masters degree in London. This experience has highlighted for Holly her care and excitement for the construction industry alongside her love and appreciation of heritage crafts and ancient buildings. Outside of work Holly loves fineline sketching and watercolour painting and has recently designed and is approaching the construction stage of building a wardrobe for her home. During a year backpacking, Holly volunteered on Fitzroy Island, Australia where there is a coral nursery and would dive down with a bamboo toothbrush and clean the algae off the coral, helping to restore and nurture the reef.
Suzanne Johnsen
Structural engineer
Suzanne is half Norwegian and half French, and from her childhood living in several countries developed a deep appreciation for cultural diversity. Motivated by a longstanding interest in history, Suzanne studied structural engineering and architecture in England with a focus on built heritage, allowing her to see both the architectural and engineering sides of the built environment. For the past six years, Suzanne has been working as part of the heritage specialism team at Curtins Consulting Engineers, as a structural engineer, working almost exclusively with historic structures of all shapes and sizes. Outside of work, Suzanne enjoys putting on her walking boots and rain jacket to go on adventures and is no stranger to camping. Suzanne always has a few creative projects on the go, from painting and sculpting to sewing and card making, sewing her own regency dress for Jane Austen Festival in Bath her latest endeavour.
Tara Aveyard
Architect
Tara qualified as an architect in 2023 and has been working at Patrick Wilson Architects in Wigan, for the past five years, working on a combination of new build residential and cultural and heritage projects. Tara’s first engagement with SPAB was joining last summer’s working party at Wentworth Woodhouse where she realised how much she would benefit from, and enjoy, being exposed to historic buildings and the skills and materials involved in their repair the Scholarship offers. Tara’s interest in making and wanting to understand how things has led her to be a member of a ceramics studio in Salford and recently started learning how to make glazes, focusing on the technical and chemical side of ceramics.
Scholars and Fellows will start their adventures in March. Want to see their journeys upfold? Follow us on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
We are grateful to everyone who makes the Fellowship and Scholarship programmes possible, including Alan Baxter Foundation, The Drake Trust, The Dance Scholarship Trust, Historic England, Delves, Robbins Family Charitable Trust, Cathedral Architects Association, Patrick Plunket Memorial Fund, Jonathan Vickers Scholarship Fund, Banister Fletcher Scholarship Fund, Ernest Cook Scholarship Fund, William Morris Craft Fellowship Trust, Scholars and Fellows from previous years, volunteer hosts and more.