Jane Stoneham

Director

Jane joined the Sensory Trust in 1996 to set up its first national office in Swindon. On a trajectory looking suspiciously headed for southern Spain, she moved the Trust to Bath and then to Cornwall where it is now comfortably settled.

"The move to Cornwall was a real turning point for the Trust. It’s where everything suddenly fell into place. I was joined by a group of remarkable people who have transformed the Sensory Trust into a wonderfully creative, multi-disciplinary team."

Jane has an environmental background with a degree in Landscape Management from the University of Bath and an MPhil in Landscape Design and Management from the University of Reading. Her interest in the connections between people and the environment led her out of the more traditional environmental arena into areas with a more multi-disciplinary focus. "I’m convinced that creative responses to issues like diversity and social exclusion can only come from a melting pot of people from different disciplines. It challenges all of us to think differently".

Early work included setting up a horticulture training unit for people with learning disabilities. This sparked frustrations from seeing how service provision conspired to segregate people and inspired a motivation to develop opportunities for disabled people to enjoy everyday experiences like visiting parks and countryside. Subsequently she worked freelance in landscape consultancy, incorporating periods of contract work that were a chance to engage in research and development work. This included a period as Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Care of the Elderly in Bath where she researched the importance of landscape in the quality of older people’s lives. As part-time lecturer at the University of Reading she set up new undergraduate and postgraduate courses in social landscape and therapeutic horticulture.

Jane is co-author of ‘Making Connections: a guide to accessible greenspace’, ‘Landscape Design for Elderly and Disabled People’, ‘Grounds for Sharing’ (Learning through Landscapes), ‘Easy Access to Historic Landscapes’ (for English Heritage) and ‘By All Reasonable Means’ (for Countryside Agency).

Registered Charity No. 1020670. Company limited by guarantee No. 02811046