John Wheatley obituary

My father, John Wheatley, who has died aged 86, was an architect with a remarkably diverse range of work.

He established John Wheatley Architects in 1968, running the practice from home alongside his teaching commitments, and his students made good use of this, through field visits or on placements. Some of them went on to become employees and partners as the practice expanded over the years.

John designed houses for a range of clients. His distinctive style meant fans of his work could spot them as they travelled around the lanes of the Teme Valley in Worcestershire, where he lived. He also designed the local fire station, classrooms and school extensions, parish rooms, youth clubs and shop fronts, as well as barn and oast house conversions, extensions and renovations.

Specialist conservation work formed a substantial part of John’s portfolio in his later career. The restoration of Cleobury Mortimer church spire in Shropshire, entailing complex drawings of the twisted timbers, earned him the John Betjeman award in 1994. And he was named in 2003 as one of the top 10 UK conservation architects, with a substantial body of work including the preservation of the blast furnaces at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, a world heritage site. He also undertook work at Witley Court in Worcestershire, Wigmore Abbey in Herefordshire and Hopton Castle in Shropshire, and, further afield, stabilised the fragile gatehouse of Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire before designing the visitor interpretation centre and restaurant within medieval towers and turrets.

John was church architect for many of the churches in the Welsh Borders. One of his first pieces of commissioned work was for Knighton-on-Teme church when he moved to the village in 1967, and the reshingling of its spire in 2016 was one of his last projects.

A graduate of Manchester University School of Architecture, he spent much of his working life teaching and mentoring trainee and practising architects, initially at Canterbury College of Art, then at the Birmingham School of Architecture, and through the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association, the West Midlands Architects Conservation Group and the Hereford Diocesan Advisory Committee.

Born in St Helens, Lancashire, to Agnes (nee Latham), a housewife and craftswoman, and Gerard Sephton-Wheatley, a teacher and designer, John attended De la Salle college in the town. Both he and his sister, Mary, were pushed hard through O- and A-levels to make up for what their parents had missed because of the privations of the Great Depression and the second world war.

In 1957 John met Judith Ward at the Manchester Union student folk dance society. They were married in 1963 and moved to rural Worcestershire, where they bought an old orchard. John designed their house and garden, both of which he enjoyed sharing with friends and visitors. His funeral was held in the church he designed 50 years ago.

John is survived by Judith, their four children, Elizabeth, Tim, Juliet and me, and eight grandchildren.