| Biographical/Administrative Information: | Janet studied Architecture at the University and later worked with Herbert Rouse, designer of many of the city's finest buildings, including India Buildings, the Queensway Tunnel and Philharmonic Hall. Following this, Janet moved back to the Lakes where she worked mainly on church restoration projects Janet spent her life between Kendal, where she was born, and Liverpool, where her Swedish grandfather, Adolf Gnosspelius, had been a stockbroker in the 19th century. Her father, Oscar, had been a geologist and pioneer aviator, specialising in early floatplanes which he flew from Windermere before the First World War. Her mother was the sculptor Barbara Collingwood, daughter of WG Collingwood, who was John Ruskin's private secretary and was at the centre of one of Lakeland's most extensive academic and intellectual dynasties.The Gnosspelius and Collingwood families were close to the author Arthur Ransome, and both Janet and her father featured in the Swallows and Amazons series of books. After her parents died in the 1960s, Janet moved to Woolton where, after her retirement, she became a founder member of both the Gateacre Society and the Wavertree Society and was involved with local conservation and history in general, also being a member of the Liverpool Heritage Bureau and the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. She gave expert evidence at several public inquiries in Liverpool when demolition of historic buildings was being considered. |
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