KATHY STANSFIELD
and horticultural excellence. We are therefore more aware of green issues and recycling and the local brownies have helped us with the baskets.” Kathy joined Dartmouth Green Partnerships two years
ago. Her beautifully planted stepped townhouse garden is testament to her green fingers. She added: “My grandfather started me off with his allotment and I still remember the smell of the soil. When I looked around the house I thought the garden would be a good project.” Kathy studied town planning and then became an
environmental journalist in London. Prior to retirement she was editor of The Structural Engineer and before that edited local government papers and the Property Services Agency magazine, Construction. Born in North Manchester, she moved to Blackpool aged nine and returned to study Town and Country Plan- ning at Manchester University. For her master’s degree she wrote a biography of Thomas Sharp, the town planner
responsible for post-war Exeter and other historic towns. Kathy moved to London to pursue her working life, which included editing books about landscape design and writing about the garden festivals of the early 1980s. She said: “As a journalist I got to explore a lot of town
and cityscapes and wrote about refurbishment work on government buildings such as top museums and galleries including the Queen’s House in Greenwich. “I’m fascinated by the concept of townscape, streets full of character and green spaces. When you explore and really look it’s like framing a picture.” Dartmouth’s townscape was a big pull for Kathy when
she moved down in 2010. She’d been regularly renting a friend’s home here for 15 years – from Dartmouth and Kingswear Society’s chair Tony Fyson, an old friend in planning. She said: “I came down here more and more often, then made a mental commitment to come and live here like so many others. “Dartmouth ticked all the boxes. There can’t be many places in the country that have such character as this town. “What’s so attractive to me is
the way the river relates to the town and the interesting mix of old and modern buildings. Some- times I walk down the street and think I could be in Italy. “I’ve travelled in Europe and
further afield including Egypt, Nepal, China, Burma, Peru and Bolivia while I was working and have to say the townscape of Dartmouth is pretty special. “I loved being in London, especially the galleries and the theatre and lived happily for more than 30 years in Notting Hill, shopping on the Portobello Road.
“But I’m happy in Dartmouth
now. I love The Flavel and am so pleased it’s here. I know people who’ve moved to Dartmouth because of it and its live theatre feeds are amazing.” When Kathy isn’t working hard
in the community she enjoys photography and painting, including attending life classes. She also owns a beautiful cat called Seti. In her professional life she
took photos of townscapes and buildings for planning reports. She continues to take photographs and sells these in the community bookshop as postcards, where you can find her every Wednesday.•
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