Marianne Suhr MRICS (born c. 1969) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Chartered Building Surveyor A Chartered Building Surveyor is a type of Chartered Surveyor involved in all aspects of property and construction, from supervising large mixed-use developments to planning domestic extensions. Building surveying is one of the widest areas of surve ...

, writer, and expert on historic buildings. She co-presented the television series ''

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

'' with

Ptolemy Dean Ptolemy Hugo Dean (born 1968) is a British architect, television presenter and the 19th Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey. He specialises in historic preservation, as well as designing new buildings that are in keeping with their hist ...

and

Griff Rhys Jones Griffith Rhys Jones (born 16 November 1953) is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, and television presenter. He starred in a number of television series with his comedy partner, Mel Smith. Rhys Jones came to national attention in the 1980s for h ...

.Project: Restoration
at electricsky.com, accessed 23 July 2008

Work

Suhr trained with the

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the destructive 'restoration' of ancient buildings occurring in ...

and runs training courses for them. She also writes articles for national newspapers and magazines, including contributions to ''Period Living''. In October 2005, Suhr joined

Richard Chartres Richard John Carew Chartres, Baron Chartres , FBS (; born 11 July 1947) is a retired bishop of the Church of England. He was area Bishop of Stepney from 1992 to 1995 and Bishop of London from 1995 to 2017. He was sworn of the Privy Council in t ...

Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

at St Giles in the Fields,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, to launch a new maintenance project for the capital's historic churches. In ''

'', she toured the United Kingdom looking for restoration projects, repairing old buildings, mixing building mud and

dowsing Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, claimed radiations ( radiesthesia),As translated from one preface of the Kassel experiments, "roughly 10,000 active dowsers in ...

. On her own account, she restored a derelict

thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

ed cottage in Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire, with a friend. On completion of the project, in May 2005, she advised "Don't expect to make money on a project if you're going to do it properly. It involves a lot of time, expensive materials and specialist craftsmen. Estimate the cost and duration of the work, then double both." In 2006, with her partner Richard, she renovated a

timber-frame Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

d house in Oxfordshire as a home. On British house-hunters in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, she has said:How not to wreck a French ruin
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', accessed 23 July 2008

Publications

*''Urban Renewal Berlin: Experience Examples Prospects'' (Senate Building and Housing Department, 1991) *''Old House Handbook: a Practical Guide to Care and Repair'' (with Roger Hunt) (London,

Frances Lincoln Publishers Frances Elisabeth Rosemary Lincoln (20 March 1945 – 26 February 2001) was an English independent publisher of illustrated books. She published under her own name and the company went on to become Frances Lincoln Publishers. In 1995, Lincoln w ...

, 2008, ) *''Old House Eco Handbook: a Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability'' (with Roger Hunt) (London,

, 2013, )

References

External links

Profile: Marianne Suhr Building surveyor and co-presenter of the BBC's Restoration series
at British Library Direct * {{DEFAULTSORT:Suhr, Marianne 1969 births Living people People from Kibworth English surveyors English television presenters Chartered Building Surveyors Home inspection