Members have a range of expertise across heritage sectors including historic buildings, landscapes, parks, nature conservation, intangible heritage and museum and archive collections and are listed below:

Richard Morris (Chair)

Richard Morris directs the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds, where he is Professor for Research in the Historic Environment. In parallel, he works as a freelance writer, with a particular emphasis on aviation history. He was Director of the Council for British Archaeology from 1991 to 1999, having earlier worked as a university teacher and Research Officer for the CBA. His interests in churches, settlement, historical topography, cultural history and aviation are reflected in essays, chapters, articles and books.  He is  Chairman of of Bede's World  and The Blackden Trust, and  a former Trustee of the National Coal Mining Museum for England.

Chris Baines

Chris Baines is an independent environmental adviser and an award winning writer and broadcaster.  He is a consultant to senior executives in the corporate and voluntary sectors and in central and local government, and he also writes for a number of popular magazines.  He works from home in inner city Wolverhampton. 

Chris trained as a horticulturist and landscape architect and taught landscape design and management at post graduate level until 1998, when he was awarded an honorary personal professorship.  He is an honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) and also of the Institute for Leisure and Amenity Management (ILAM) and he sits on the steering committee of the Government’s urban greenspace advisory body, CABE Space. He is also a member of the BBC Breathing Places steering committee and CABE’s Strategic Urban Design think tank.

He holds non-executive posts with a number of national charities and is best known as a partnership broker, a conference speaker and a champion for access to nature and for sustainable development.  From 1998 until 2004 he was a trustee of the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

Alan Baxter

Alan Baxter trained as an Engineer. He is the Senior Partner of Alan Baxter & Associates which is a 150 strong practice of Engineers, Architects, Building Historians, Archaeologists, Landscape Designers and others which seek to integrate the thinking behind the design and care of the built and natural environment. This holistic approach is focused especially on the interaction of conservation and new development and their role in creating good urbanism.

Alec Coles

Alec Coles is Director of Tyne & Wear Museums (TWM), one of Britain’s largest and most successful regional museums services.  TWM runs 11 museums on behalf of six funding clients and attracts over 1.5 million visits each year.  It also leads The North East’s Regional Museums Hub under the Government’s Renaissance in the Regions programme.

Alec was previously Chief Executive of Northumberland Wildlife Trust where he developed the ‘people and wildlife’ agenda and sought to raise the social as well as environmental profile of the Trust.

Prior to this he spent over ten years in various roles at TWM where, as manager of the Hancock Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne, he was instrumental in introducing ‘blockbuster’ exhibitions to the organisation and with it the need to develop more sophisticated marketing and public engagement techniques.

He spent his early career at Woodspring Museum in Weston-super-Mare, following short-term contract and at the Dorman Museum in Middlesbrough.

Alec is particularly interested in evaluating and demonstrating the wider social impacts of museums and recently sat on the Government’s External Advisory Group which contributed to the document Understanding the Future: Museums and 21^st Century Life.

Alec is a graduate in Biological Sciences (University of Leicester) and still maintains a strong interest in environmental matters and the botanical sciences.

He is a board member of the North East Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, and is Treasurer of the Museums Association.

Martyn Heighton

Martyn began his heritage career with Oxfordshire Museums, where he ran the Education Loan Service, then opened 2 new museums in Oxford and Witney. In 1978 he went to Liverpool to take the lead on the new Merseyside Maritime Museum as part of the regeneration of the Albert Dock. Then to Bristol as the Chief Officer with a wide ranging cultural and heritage remit for Museums, Arts, Parks, and Heritage Estates, Libraries, Sports, the Youth Service, Tourism, the Floating Harbour, and Sponsor for the successful Bristol Landmark Millennium project based on science and the natural environment. He became Chief Executive of the Mary Rose Trust in 1997, and joined the Management Board of the National Trust in 2001, leaving in January 2005 to pursue an independent career in heritage, arts and urban regeneration.

After initiating and coordinating the South West's programme celebrating the bi-centenary of the birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Martyn was appointed as the Director of National Historic Ships, the new DCMS-sponsored body responsible for promoting the well being of historic vessels throughout the UK.

Martyn has sat on many external boards including the Association of Independent Museums, The Bristol Cultural Development Partnership, and The Theatres Trust and as the first Chair of the South East Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. He is now a Trustee of the SS Great Britain and Member of Inland Waterways Advisory Committee.

Norman Reid

Norman Reid has been Keeper of Manuscripts in the University of St Andrews Library since 1995, and Head of the Library's Special Collections Department since May 2004.  Previously, he was Archivist to Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, and, between 1988 and 1990, Archivist and Records Manager to the Government of the Cayman Islands.He has been active in professional affairs for many years, serving, for instance, on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Society of Archivists since 1993, and on the Steering Group of the joint Higher Education Funding Councils' "Research Support Libraries Programme" from1998 to 2002, before being appointed to the HLF's Expert Panel on Museums, Libraries and Archives in December 2002. His archival interests are wide-ranging, spanning medieval manuscripts to modern digital technologies. Also a practicing medieval historian, he has published widely on both historical and professional subjects.

Hilary Taylor

Dr Hilary Taylor, Director of Hilary Taylor Landscape Associates Ltd, (HTLA), has been a specialist consultant, working on historic landscapes and the historic environment, for over 20 years.

Hilary long campaigned for the importance of public parks and, since1996, has worked on many such sites, including Battersea Park, Birkenhead Park and Stainborough Park at Wentworth Castle.  In each of these cases, the HTLA team masterminded large-scale – and award-winning – projects which saw the restoration and development of landscapes of major cultural and social significance.

HTLA has also worked on Saltaire, a WHS; and on other historic landscapes in the hands of private owners or the National Trust, including Cragside in Northumberland and Dunham Massey, Cheshire.  For the HLF, Hilary has monitored numerous sites, including Dyffryn, in South Wales, Roundhay Park in Leeds, Prior Park, Chiswick and Tyntesfield.

Hilary’s stint on the HLF’s Historic Building and Land Panel, from 2001, was followed by her membership of the Expert Panel.  In 2008, Hilary was appointed to the Church Buildings Council and the associated Statutory Advisory Committee.  Her professional roots are in art and architectural history, and she has made a largely amateur, but long-term, study of plants and trees. She has published books and articles on art history and landscape history.

Philip Venning

Philip Venning has been Secretary of The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings since 1984, having previously been Assistant Editor of The Times Educational Supplement. An economics graduate, he was a member of the National Trust Council for 9 years, and is a Vice President of the National Churches Trust. He serves on the Westminster Abbey Fabric Commission, and has a special interest in training in building conservation.

Janet Vitmayer

Janet Vitmayer has been Director of the Horniman Museum and Gardens since 1999. She has worked in the museum sector for some 30 years and her career has spanned National, small local authority and Regional museums. She is a visitor to the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford and a trustee of the London Transport Museum.

Caroline Wilson

Caroline Wilson is an architect whose career has specialised in historic building conservation and the design of new elements in historic environments. In her work at Julian Harrap Architects she has built up a wide experience of the built heritage, designed landscapes, collections care and public access. Her clients have included the National Trust, the Sir John Soane Museum, Cliveden Hotel and a number of parish churches and building preservation trusts. She has also worked in Berlin, planning the reconstruction of the Neues Museum.

Caroline has taught at a number of architecture and conservation courses and has published papers in conservation and architectural periodicals. Before joining the current HLF Panel, she was a member of the HLF Expert Panel for Historic Buildings and Land.