Bob Bray’s talk on SuDS now available as video
30th May 2023
LINK to planetEstream https://estream.glos.ac.uk/Default.aspx?catid=2438
The John Simpson memorial lectures are held in honour of a former colleague and friend to the Cheltenham Landscape Architecture Course. In 1965 he was appointed to the Gloucestershire College of Art which was then located in the Pittville Pump Room and he brought his wide-ranging expertise in hydrology, construction and surveying skills to the students of Landscape Architecture as well as aspects of planning law. John eventually took on the role of running the Landscape course, effectively as Head of School for a short while, ensuring the four-year full-time course maintained its cohesion and necessary exemption from the intermediate examination of the Institute of Landscape Architects.
During the 1970s the course continued to expand and gained full Landscape Institute recognition. John was then a key member within a team of tutors and he maintained his subject currency through his regular consultancy work often with Bodfan Gruffydd’s practice office and mostly related to land
surveying, reservoir design, drainage and planning enquiries. The course finally achieved CNAA honours degree status in 1984 which heralded a decade of curricular consolidation and international exchanges. Links with universities in Canada, Hungary and USA were established and John helped forge a special relationship in 1984 with Professor Michael Hodges of the University of Michigan Landscape Faculty, who for three years accompanied students for a term in our institution as well as accepting our staff and students in return visits.
John Simpson retired in 1989 – the year that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate awarded an ‘excellent rating’ on the Landscape course: a fitting conclusion to John’s contribution through the years but arguably, most of all, John will be remembered for the important work of admissions tutor to the course. Over a quarter of a century he was individually responsible for the processing of hundreds of applications and interviews of prospective students. In no small measure was the course in debt to John for this essential but barely acknowledged non-computerised administrative task, and many students no doubt, if asked, would declare that their choice for Landscape Architecture in Cheltenham was influenced by John’s warm and personal welcome.
John died ten years ago (2013).
We are extremely grateful to Catherine, John’s daughter, who has generously agreed to sponsor the lectures allowing us to invite speakers expert in the combined fields of landscape architecture and civil engineering, John’s original qualification.
