Harriet Devlin MBE retired from Birmingham City University as Director of the Conservation of the Historic Environment programme. Harriet has championed vernacular buildings working for 10 years in Northern Ireland where she received the Europa Nostra Award for the Mourne Homesteads project, which has had a huge impact as a sustainable way of retaining buildings, skills and the bringing together of communities.

Harriet was awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship - Conservation of the Built Environment in 2005 working in Europe and Scandinavia with the European Initiatives in Preventative Maintenance for Historic Buildings.

Harriet has written several scholarly articles and studies including Buildings at Risk Vol 5, Vol 6 and SOS Buildings at Risk for the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, Traditional Buildings of Mourne and Maintenance Matters.

Harriet’s passion for preventative maintenance of historic buildings and her “A stitch in time saves nine” approach has always been at the forefront of her work for many years. She has an enormous wealth of experience working at fundraising, coordinating initiatives and building preservation trusts.

In 2014 Harriet was awarded an MBE for her services to the Historic Environment.

Harriet is “passionate about the care, understanding and celebration of our extraordinary historic environment” and has passed on her enthusiasm not only to those she has taught at BCU but also to many home owners

Harriet's End of an Era Retirement Party

Harriet celebrated with a retirement party at The Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge Community Centre with family, friends, colleagues and students wishing her a wonderful retirement which truly was an End of an Era celebration of her work.

Harriet wrote a poem on her retirement from BCU which she read at the party CLICK HERE to download the poem

Take a look at some of the photographs taken at the event below...