Helen
Bishop had a happy childhood in South Devon before studying textile
design at Leicester Polytechnic. She moved to Somerset in the mid
1980s to join the research and development department at Clarks, working
on the design aspect of a CADCAM system for the design and manufacture
of footwear. She went on to design children's and women's footwear
for Clarks for several years.
Helen loves to travel and has spent 2 years in India, particularly
the Himalayas, where she has had many trekking adventures. She gets
out walking more locally these days whenever she can. In the mid 1990s
she took redundancy from Clarks and set up a footwear design consultancy.
She worked as a freelance designer until 2000, when she retrained
as a primary teacher at Bath Spa. Helen has one son, Jerome who is
a pupil at St Aldhelm's. As well as walking, she is interested in
yoga, gardening and making art.