Bournemouth University Heritage Conservation Alumni appointed OBE in the New Year Honours List

Peter Aiers, who completed a BSc (Hons) Heritage Conservation degree at BU in 1995, was appointed OBE in the New Year Honours List for services to heritage.

Peter Aiers sitting on a bench with his dogImage Copyright Will Pryce
After graduating, Peter worked for English Heritage at Stonehenge, then in London and Northampton before moving on to join the Diocese of London, working with historic church buildings. Peter said of the award: “I am extremely proud of this award, although this does represent a significant amount of support and inspiration from colleagues and friends across the course of my career. It is always a team effort.”

Peter also spent 15 years at the Churches Conservation Trust, most recently as Chief Executive. During his time at the CCT Peter set up the award-winning Regeneration Team, and led on several large regeneration projects, including All Souls Bolton.

Peter used his degree from BU as a platform to build his experience in heritage and forge a solid foundation in historic building conservation, and an interest in how historic buildings serve contemporary society, saying: “My degree at Bournemouth provided me with a broad range of knowledge of the heritage sector, from archaeology to building conservation, policy and planning law, materials, and museums. This was extremely helpful in my early career, as there were several options open to me and I could take advantage of many different opportunities. We also had quite a lot of fun.”

In 2022 he became Master of The Charterhouse, a 400-year-old almshouse charity in central London. The Charterhouse remains a home to older men and women, whilst also hosting a publicly accessible museum, with tours and a commercial events company.