On Wednesday, April 8, at 10.30am, there will be an unveiling ceremony in honour of Cotherstone resident, Dame Jane Drew, at West Lodge in the village.
There is a recently erected information panel hanging on the wall of the Cotherstone village cafe recording the impressive international work of architect Dame Jane Drew.
Cotherstone (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)
She was a member of several international art and architecture groups, with friends and colleagues who included members of the disbanded Modernist Bauhaus group as they passed through the UK in the late 1930s on their way to the USA.
In London, she did social housing and helped establish the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
After retiring from practice, she travelled and lectured abroad, receiving several honorary degrees across the globe.
Her greatest achievements, though, were designing social and public housing in England, West Africa, India and Iran.
She designed buildings in Ghana, Nigeria, Iran and Sri Lanka, and wrote numerous books on architectural practices across the world.
Cotherstone (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
Drew was awarded the DBE, a damehood, in the 1996 New Year Honours, only seven months before her death.
She and her husband, Maxwell Fry, moved to Cotherstone in retirement from London, and Jane died in the village from cancer in 1996.
Jane is buried near St. Romald’s church in nearby Romaldkirk.
While as a village member, Jane was known for her cheerfulness and working on her allotment.
However, not many knew of her achievements, including her work with world-famous Le Corbusier at Chandigarh and her pioneering work as a woman architect in a man’s world.
A commemorative blue plaque has been commissioned to be attached to the house where Jane lived in the village, West Lodge.
The plaque will be unveiled on Wednesday, April 8 at 10.30am, followed by cake and coffee at the village cafe and shop.