David is North Staffordshire Heritage’s chief executive. He was a lawyer who specialised in world heritage, heritage-based community regeneration, and human rights.
His hobbies include photography and gardening. He enjoys listening to traditional English folk songs, exploring heritage towns, visiting industrial museums and watching 1940s movies. His favourite films are The First of the Few, North West Passage and First Comes Courage.
David took his A levels at Stoke-on-Trent College of Commerce. He studied law and history at the London School of Economics. He wrote his thesis on local government in the Potteries. David studied art history at Stoke-on-Trent College of Art. He was a member of the college’s photographic club and photographed the Potteries in the swinging sixties. Between 1963 and 1967, he took over 5,000 slides, which he gave to the college.
Betty and David met in Tunstall. Betty was researching the history of Forster Street School, where her brother, Neil, was headteacher. David was photographing the site of Tunstall Court Leet. The court was an Anglo-Saxon Territorial Court. It tried criminal offences committed in Kidsgrove, Mow Cop, Harriseahead, Brindley Ford, Newchapel, Chell, Goldenhill, Tunstall, Burslem and Cobridge.
Before becoming North Staffordshire Heritage’s chief executive, David took a six-month sabbatical to study the Anglo-Saxon legal system.
(Revised January 2026)
North Staffordshire Heritage 