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New Director of Cathedrals and Church Buildings appointed

28 April 2008

Janet Gough, Director of Cathedrals and Church Buildings

The Archbishops’ Council has appointed Janet Gough as Director of Cathedrals and Church Buildings. She will take up the post in September.

The Cathedral and Church Buildings Division, based at Church House, Westminster, is responsible for national policy on the Church of England's 16,000 places of worship and for developing and maintaining relations between Church and State, and with national and local bodies on church building matters.

A Cambridge graduate in history and history of art, Janet Gough qualified as a chartered accountant and pursued a career in finance in the City before working for Sotheby’s for 10 years where she became a director. 

From 2001 to 2002 she was acting director of The Phoenix Trust (now The Prince’s Regeneration Trust), one of The Prince of Wales’s charities that rescues and finds new uses for historic buildings. She left to have her young children and to run architectural tours and courses. 

For more than eight years until 2006, Janet Gough was a trustee of the Churches Conservation Trust, which looks after some 300 of England’s finest historic churches.  Building on the core conservation work of the Trust, she was involved in improving access to the churches – from more lavatories, lights and kitchens to a visitor website, an education officer and better interpretation and signage. She was also involved in seeking more ambitious uses for some churches such as the circus skills school at St Paul’s Bristol, which still remains open for worship. 

Janet is a trustee of the Museum of Fulham Palace, the 1000-year-old former palace of the Bishops of London, which recently underwent a major conservation and restoration project sponsored by the Heritage Lottery Fund. She lives in London and worships at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square.

Janet, who has always had a particular passion for Britain’s churches and cathedrals, said: “I am looking forward to taking up this key appointment that will give me the chance to apply my business background and enthusiasm to a cause close to my heart.”

The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Richard Chartres, who chairs the Church Heritage Forum and the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division, said: "Janet's previous experience not only gives her credibility in the field of Heritage and Conservation, but also equips her for the campaigning work which must be done if the present asymmetrical relationship between the Church and funding bodies is to be improved. The Parish Churches and Cathedrals of England constitute a vital contribution to our national sense of identity. It is right that we should establish new partnerships in maintaining and developing this remarkable resource.

“I very much look forward to working with Janet Gough in achieving the Church’s ambition to play an even greater role for the common good in the wider community.”

Janet Gough succeeds Paula Griffiths, who left in December 2007 to undertake training for the priesthood.