Unusually for such a small team, Landmark has employed its own in-house Historian since its foundation in 1965. Caroline has been Landmark’s Historian since 2000. Documentary research into Landmark’s buildings lies at the heart of the Historian’s contribution to all aspects of Landmark’s work, feeding into the understanding of its buildings and how to restore them. Caroline writes, speaks and lectures extensively about Landmark’s buildings to a wide range of audiences, and oversees Landmark’s outreach programmes and archives. She writes the Landmark History Albums and gathers the books for ‘library’ that is such a well-loved feature of every Landmark.
Caroline read Modern History from Jesus College, Oxford, before spending ten years in international marketing for blue chip companies, during which she took a part-time MA in Early Modern History at Birkbeck. A further decade was spent living in Barcelona and Connecticut and bringing up her three children. Buying a 15th-century church house in a Berkshire village prompted an interest in historic buildings and led to an MSc in Historic Conservation at Oxford Brookes. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, she has served on the committee of the Society of Architectural Historians. In 2018, she began studying for a part-time DPhil in Architectural History at Oxford University, on Fired Artificial Stone 1650-1850, which is still ongoing.
Caroline loves art, music and theatre, and values them as much as historic architecture as sources to inform our understanding of the past and present. With Anna, she co-authored Landmark: A History of Britain in 50 Buildings, and in 2004 edited Dearest Augustus & I: the Journal of Jane Pugin. She has published numerous academic and articles on Landmark’s buildings and is a regular specialist contributor on television and radio. Caroline has as many research interests as there are Landmarks. Some particular specialisms are Coade stone (Belmont), A W Pugin (The Grange), James Boswell (Auchinleck House), Llwyn Celyn and the Llanthony Valley - and the histories of pineapples (The Pineapple) and rabbits (The Warren House)!