Our Committee

Every one of our Committee members is a volunteer. Together we cover many aspects of the wallcoverings sector – we are conservators, historians, researchers, lecturers, artists, and manufacturers.

Rowena Beighton-Dykes, Chair and Editor of the Review

Rowena joined the WHS Committee in 2017. She is a researcher and writer specialising in the socio-economic context of historic interiors. Previously a Contextual Studies lecturer, and manager of creative industries partnerships at Staffordshire University, she has a Master’s in The English Country House from the University of Leicester. Her articles have been published in The Victorian magazine, the BAPH Quarterly and the WHS Review.

Eleanor Brooke-Peat, Secretary

Eleanor is the Curator of Collections & Archives at Castle Howard, North Yorkshire. She has over 14 years’ experience as a country house curator, having previously worked at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. Her interests lie with the decorative arts and interiors, and the discovery of a collection of wallpapers at Castle Howard has inspired her ongoing research into the subject.

Pauline Birdsall, Treasurer and Membership Secretary

Pauline joined the committee as membership secretary in 2018 before becoming treasurer. She is an independent upholsterer with a 17th-century second home in France, where she has found and recorded numerous wallpapers. She is fascinated by the social history of wallpaper and the development of design, and thoroughly enjoys working with the whole team at WHS.

Lucy Ellis

Lucy is a freelance writer, editor and speaker. Following a career encompassing retail buying, translation and working for the charity Art UK, she studied for an MA in the History of Design & Material Culture (2019), researching the English wallpaper industry in the 1920s and 1930s through the medium of its trade magazines. She is particularly interested in the social, domestic and retail aspects of wallpaper. Lucy joined the committee in 2021.

Dr Wendy Andrews

Wendy is the part-time course tutor for the Master’s degree in Building History at the University of Cambridge. After a career in communications Wendy returned to academic study at Cambridge in 2011 and completed her PhD on the Cowtan & Sons’ decorating company archive at the V&A in 2017. Wendy writes and lectures on the significance of wallpaper in building history and has undertaken research for Historic Royal Palaces, Historic England and private clients. She joined the committee in 2013.

Dr. Phillippa Mapes

Phillippa joined the committee in 1999. She gained an MA in the Conservation of Historic Wallpaper in 1993. She then ran her own business specialising in historic wallpaper conservation, working in private historic houses, museums and heritage institutions. In 2004, Phillippa joined the conservation team at English Heritage, before returning to study in 2012 for a doctorate in wallpaper history at Leicester University. She now works for the National Trust and runs her own freelance consultancy specialising in historic wallpapers.

Andrew Bush

Andrew has been a member of the committee since 2014, serving as its Chair from 2016-21. Now retired, he worked for 10 years as a paper conservator at The National Maritime Museum, before spending most of his career working for the National Trust, caring for historic collections and specifically advising on paper conservation. This was where his interest in historic wallpapers developed, especially in the production techniques of the 18th and early 19th century.

Jo Banham

Jo has curated historic wallpaper collections at the Whitworth Gallery and Arthur Sanderson & Sons, where she directed and created public programmes, and worked in a curatorial capacity. She has worked for renowned organisations such as the V&A, Tate Britain and the Royal Academy and is now the Director of the Victorian Society of America Summer School and lectures regularly for the Arts Society and many universities. She joined the committee in 2023.

David Skinner

David is a wallpaper printer, conservator and historian living in County Leitrim, Ireland. He is the author of Wallpaper in Ireland 1700-1900, a detailed history of the wallpaper trade and the social history of wallpaper in Ireland, published in 2014. He has led two wallpaper history tours of Ireland for members of the WHS, in 2015 and 2023. David joined the committee in 2023.