She started her career as an archaeologist in the peatlands of Somerset, moved on to maritime archaeology at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. She then went inland to the moorlands of Dartmoor and Exmoor and on, via Cornwall, Bristol and more ports of call, to become director in the West Midlands office of Historic England. Veryan spent some of her early years in Malvern and has returned to live there, at the foot of the Malvern Hills. 

In between, she has developed a lifelong passion for our landscapes, the ways in which people have shaped them, and the natural world, which completes their story. Managing our precious and irreplaceable heritage and sharing its secrets and its beauty with everyone has been key to Veryan’s working life.