Jill Spencer Allibone (26 April 1932 – 3 February 1998) was an English

architectural historian An architectural historian is a person who studies and writes about the history of architecture, and is regarded as an authority on it. Professional requirements As many architectural historians are employed at universities and other facilities ...

and the founder of the Mausolea and Monuments Trust. She wrote studies of

Anthony Salvin Anthony Salvin (17 October 1799 – 17 December 1881) was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations. He restored castles and country ho ...

and

George Devey George Devey (1820, London – 1886, Hastings, Sussex) was an English architect notable for his work on country houses and their estates, especially those belonging to the Rothschild family. The second son of Frederick and Ann Devey, he was bo ...

, and was a justice of the peace for over 20 years.

Early life

Allibone was born Jill Spencer Rigden in

Abadan Abadan ( fa, آبادان ''Ābādān'', ) is a city and capital of Abadan County, Khuzestan Province, which is located in the southwest of Iran. It lies on Abadan Island ( long, 3–19 km or 2–12 miles wide). The island is bounded ...

,"Victorian values" by Andrew Saint in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 10 February 1998, p. 14. Iran, on 26 April 1932, where her father,

Horace Walter Rigden Horace Walter Rigden, Order of the British Empire, OBE, (2 April 1898 - 1986) was an English chemist and oil industry executive who managed the Anglo-Persian oil refinery at Abadan in Iran during the 1930s and the Second World War, receiving the O ...

, managed the Anglo-Persian oil refinery. She spent her youth in Iran apart from a period during the Second World War where she was evacuated to South Africa. She was educated at Godolphin School, Salisbury, and then

St Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art school, art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's beca ...

. In 1954 she joined the Courtauld InstituteObituary: Jill Allibone.
Hermione Hobhouse, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 22 October 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2015. where she was a contemporary of

Brian Sewell Brian Alfred Christopher Bushell Sewell (; 15 July 1931 – 19 September 2015) was an English art critic. He wrote for the ''Evening Standard'' and had an acerbic view of conceptual art and the Turner Prize. ''The Guardian'' described him as " ...

. At that time she met her future husband, the solicitor David Allibone, whom she married in 1957 before she had finished her degree. They lived in Kent. She took her finals while pregnant with her first child. According to Sewell, she only married David Allibone after first enquiring about Sewell's intentions towards her, apparently being unaware that he was gay.

Career

All Saints Church, Whitstable, Kent - geograph

After the birth of three daughters, Allibone returned to the Courtauld to complete a PhD on the Gothic architect Anthony Salvin, which was published in 1987. Her supervisor was

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

, the first chairman of the

Victorian Society The Victorian Society is a UK amenity society and membership organisation that campaigns to preserve and promote interest in Victorian and Edwardian architecture and heritage built between 1837 and 1914 in England and Wales. It is a registered ...

, with which Allibone became closely involved. Her study of

, known for his Kentish works, was published in 1991. She catalogued his drawings in the British Architectural Library. In 1996 she contributed essays to ''The Inns of Court'' (Black Dog Publishing, 2001). While visiting her grandmother's grave at

All Saints Church All Saints Church, or All Saints' Church or variations on the name may refer to: Albania *All Saints' Church, Himarë Australia * All Saints Church, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory * All Saints Anglican Church, Henley Brook, Western Aust ...

Whitstable Whitstable () is a town on the north coast of Kent adjoining the convergence of the Swale Estuary and the Greater Thames Estuary in southeastern England, north of Canterbury and west of Herne Bay. The 2011 Census reported a population of 32 ...

, Kent, Allibone chanced upon a

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

Wynne Ellis Wynne Ellis (also Wynn Ellis) (1790–1875) was a wealthy British haberdasher, politician and art collector. Biography Ellis, son of Thomas Ellis, by Elizabeth Ordway of Barkway, Hertfordshire, was born at Oundle, Northamptonshire, in July 1790, ...

, a wealthy

haberdasher In British English, a haberdasher is a business or person who sells small articles for sewing, dressmaking and knitting, such as buttons, ribbons, and zippers; in the United States, the term refers instead to a retailer who sells men's clothing, ...

and donor to the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

. Seeing that the tomb was decaying, Allibone tracked down the owners and applied to have the site listed with

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. It is now a

grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

monument. This kindled Allibone's interest in funery monuments and in 1997, she founded the Mausolea and Monuments Trust, which is able to take over monuments in order to maintain and protect them. Allibone was a fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

Outside architecture

Allibone was appointed a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for the South Westminster Bench in 1966, in which capacity she served for over 20 years.

Death

Allibone died in

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

, Kent, on 3 February 1998. She is buried with her husband David Allibone (died 2007) at St George's church, Benenden, Kent.

Selected publications

*''Anthony Salvin, Pioneer of Gothic Revival Architecture 1799–1881'',

University of Missouri Press The University of Missouri Press is a university press operated by the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri and London, England; it was founded in 1958 primarily through the efforts of English professor William Peden. Many publications a ...

, Columbia, 1987.Reviewed Work: ''Anthony Salvin: Pioneer of Gothic Revival Architecture'' by Jill Allibone

James Stevens Curl James Stevens Curl (born 26 March 1937)Contemporary Authors, vols. 37–40, ed. Ann Every, Gale/Cengage Learning, 1979, p. 110 is an architectural historian, architect, and author with an extensive range of publications to his name. Early life an ...

, ''

Journal of Design History The Design History Society is an arts history organisation founded in 1977 to promote and support the study and understanding of design history. The Society undertakes a range of charitable activities intended to encourage and support research and ...

'', Vol. 2, No. 1 (1989), pp. 56–57. *''George Devey: Architect 1820–1886'',

Lutterworth Press The Lutterworth Press, one of the oldest independent British publishing houses, has traded since the late eighteenth century - initially as the Religious Tract Society (RTS). The Lutterworth imprint, named after the small English town of Lutte ...

, 1991. *''Wall Paintings of Garton-on-the-Wolds'', Pevsner Memorial Trust, 1991.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allibone, Jill British architectural historians 1932 births 1998 deaths English justices of the peace People educated at Godolphin School People from Abadan, Iran Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London British women historians