HTNW Board
Heritage Trust North West is a company limited by guarantee and a charity. It is governed by a Board of Trustees including a Chair, a Vice Chair, a Treasurer and a Secretary.
Meetings are usually held quarterly in February, May, August and November with the final meeting also being our AGM. Most meetings are held in person in the day but some will be online or hybrid and we are open.
Board members
John Turner – Chair
John Turner is a Chartered Surveyor with 27 years of Rural Estate Management experience. Ten years was spent working with The National Trust in Wiltshire managing the Stourhead Estate including the World Famous 17th Century Landscape Gardens which welcomed 250,000 visitors a year. Since 2000 work has been in Cumbria managing the Earl of Lonsdale’s 77,000 acre family Estates at Lowther.
Mark Blundell – Vice Chair
Mark Blundell is the present incumbent of the Crosby Hall Estate in Little Crosby which has been in the possession of the Blundell family for many centuries. The estate includes about forty listed buildings. For many years he was a member of the Council of Liverpool University, holding the posts of President and Pro-Chancellor and serving on numerous committees. He was a member of the Heritage Lottery Fund Committee for the North-West between 2001 and 2007. He has been a member of the Council of Tate Liverpool, a trustee of Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services, a governor of Royal Northern College of Music, chair of Liverpool University Pension Fund, and chair of Merseyside Buildings Preservation Trust. Since 2017 he has been His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside.
Steve Williams – Secretary and Treasurer
Steve is the Managing Director of Force Technology Ltd, a global leading advanced spring manufacturing company with an international customer base in the Automotive, Aerospace, Marine and Off-Highway markets, which he jointly established in 2015. As an entrepreneur and business leader, he has created three successful SME manufacturing companies and turned around several manufacturing businesses and charities. With a degree in physics and accountancy, Steve has worked in the aerospace and automotive sectors in design, engineering, operations, project management, and business management. He has spent over thirty years leading manufacturing projects and companies in Lancashire. Steve has also spent nearly twenty years supporting heritage and cultural projects in Lancashire and the North West.
Laurie Peake
Laurie Peake is Director of Super Slow Way, working with the communities along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal corridor in East Lancashire, to improve their spaces and places, with art that speaks to their context. Laurie is also the Artistic Director of the British Textile Biennial (BTB), a contemporary art biennial that is inspired by the area’s textile industry, its history and its contemporary legacy. Laurie was previously Programme Director at Liverpool Biennial for 10 years, where she developed strategic partnerships to deliver temporary and permanent commissions with international artists in public spaces across Merseyside.
Elizabeth Moss
Liz is a Partner with Counterculture LLP, one of the UK’s leading professional services providers for the creative and cultural sector, enabling her to bring skills and experience developed over the past 30 years. Previously she was Chief Executive of the Blackpool Heritage and Museum Trust, brought in as the driving force to open Showtown, the Museum of Fun and Entertainment in March 2024. This unique, ground breaking and award winning museum puts people and their heritage front and centre stage of every aspect of its delivery. Previous career roles include opening the multi-award-winning Windermere Jetty Museum, lleading the strategic development of Lakeland Arts and transforming the commercial interests of the Lake District National Park .
Georgina Lynch
Philip Welsh
Philip has extensive senior management and board level experience in both public and private sectors. He enjoyed a highly successful career spanning 30 years in the regional newspaper industry during which time he was editor and managing director of several award-winning daily and weekly titles. He then joined Blackpool Council where he led the authority’s tourism and corporate communications teams as well as establishing the Blackpool Business Leadership Group. He retired from the Council at the end of 2024. Philip was heavily involved in several external organisations during his career. He was a long-standing director of Blackpool Grand Theatre and the Blackpool Business Improvement District and served as a governor of Blackpool Sixth Form College for more than a decade.
Jenna Johnston
Jenna Johnston is an IHBC‑accredited Associate Heritage Consultant with expertise in urban regeneration and the adaptive reuse of historic buildings. She leads the Heritage Consultancy service at Buttress, where she supports clients in delivering viable, place-led projects that reinforce local character and support sustainable long-term use. Jenna’s work spans complex heritage environments and involves navigating policy requirements, funding, viability, and stewardship responsibilities to secure positive outcomes for heritage assets and the communities they serve.