Keith Roy Darby, A.A.Dipl., R.I.B.A.

Keith Darby was born in Suffolk on 25 April 1931 and trained at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. He worked briefly in the London County Council Architect's Department in the Research and Development Section of the Housing Division, and in private practice in Weybridge, before returning to East Anglia in 1969 to join Bernard Feilden, F.S.A., and David Mawson, F.S.A., in their ecclesiastical practice in Norwich. In that year Feilden had been appointed Surveyor to the Fabric of St Paul's Cathedral, and Darby soon returned to London to act as his assistant in this post, developing in the process an abiding interest in the history, repair and conservation of ancient buildings. By 1974 he was also involved with many local churches as a surveyor in the dioceses of Norwich, St Edmundsbury & Ipswich and Ely, but Norwich Cathedral remained his first love. He was appointed Surveyor to the Fabric in 1990 but, unhappily, ill health forced his retirement in 1995. He was responsible for the work on George Hedgeland's great west window of 1854 which had suffered insensitive restoration in the 1870s by disciples of Pugin, who had diluted its vivid colours in accordance with the taste of the times. The original colours are now visible again in their full glory. Darby was directing repairs to the central tower at the time of his retirement, and his grasp of physics and chemistry enabled him to assess the causes of building decay more readily than many architects. He was involved with research projects for English Heritage and the Building Research Establishment and acted as a consultant on lead corrosion, decay in polished limestone, fire strategies in cathedrals and environmental monitoring. He was president of the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association in 1988, a member of the Cathedral Architects' Steering Group, a panel architect for the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, a lecturer at the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies at York and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters. Apart from ecclesiastical buildings, Darby was also associated with restoration work at Corsham Court, Raynham Hall, Langley Hall and Hampton Court Palace. His interest in conservation extended to natural history and, a committed Christian, his two local churches at Blofield and Hemblington benefited from his wealth of experience as an architect. A thanksgiving service for Darby's life and work was held in Norwich Cathedral on 15 March 1996, only a few weeks before the cathedral celebrated its 900th anniversary - an event he would have savoured. He died on 6 February 1996.