Contact

If you would like to speak to one of the Registry staff, the contact details are as follows:

The Bishop of Lincoln’s Registry
1 The Sanctuary
Westminster
London
SW1P 3JT

Reception Telephone: 020 7222 5381
Direct Telephone: 020 7960 7198
Email: lincoln.registry@1thesanctuary.com

About Us

The Chancellor of the Diocese (the judge of the Diocesan Consistory Court) is The Revd. His Hon. Judge Mark Bishop, who can be contacted via the Registry’s contact details above.

Registrar – Ian Blaney

Ian Blaney is the Registrar to the Bishop of Lincoln and a notary public for ecclesiastical purposes.

He is Registrar to the Bishop of Derby, Deputy Registrar of the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Deputy Registrar of the Guildford Diocese, a Governor of St Mary’s Church of England Primary School, Hornsey, a member of the Hornsey St Mary and St George Parochial Church Council and a trustee of the Friends of the Church in China. Ian acts for a wide range of charitable organisations, with a particular focus on ecclesiastical and education law. His practice extends to:-

– the establishment and regulation of charities;
– academies set up under the Academies Act 2010, particularly in the conversion of maintained schools to academies in relation to which he has been involved in over 100 projects;
– charity property, acquisition, development and disposal, and trusts of land; and
– all matters relating to the Church of England.

Ian was educated at Alsager School and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he read history. He subsequently studied the law both in London and in Cardiff. Ian was an ecclesiastical clerk in Lee Bolton Monier-Williams from 2005-011, working in the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the diocesan registries of the Bishops of Ely, Guildford, Hereford and Liverpool. After a brief spell in China he completed a training contract with Lee Bolton Monier-Williams and qualified into the ecclesiastical, educational and charity department.

Ian has acted for a wide range of institutional and private clients. He has contributed to respected publications on the law of marriage, ecclesiastical property, and burial law and cremation and has a detailed knowledge of the law of school sites and trusts.

Clerk – Kevin Diamond

Kevin Diamond  joined Lee Bolton Monier-Williams in January 2018 as an ecclesiastical clerk in the Lincoln Diocesan Registry, and is the principal clerk and key contact for matters ranging from faculties, to marriage licences and general enquiries.  He worked for 22 years in various roles with the Archbishops’ Council’s National Church Institutions in Westminster, most recently having completed 13 years as a National Adviser for Selection for Ordained Ministry. He is a member of the Ecclesiastical Law Society.

Deputy Registrar – Howard Dellar

Howard Dellar is head of the Ecclesiastical Education and Charities Department and Senior Partner at Lee Bolton Monier-Williams.

He is Registrar to the Dioceses of Guildford, Liverpool and Ely, and is the Registrar of the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Howard is the solicitor to many charitable companies, Maintained schools, Academies, Independent schools and a number of Church of England Diocesan Boards of Finance and Education. He advises the National Society, the Whitgift Foundation and a number of Multi- Academy trusts. Howard is secretary to the Bletchingdon Community Foundation and chair of The Bletchington Charity and of The St Mary Magdalen Oxford Restoration and Development Trust. He is a member of the Ecclesiastical Law Society and the Charity Law Association.

Deputy Registrar – Susan Newell

Susan Newell is a Solicitor in our Ecclesiastical Education & Charities Department.

Susan read biology at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, graduating with a first-class degree, before completing a postgraduate Diploma in Law and the LPC. She qualified as a solicitor in 1997 and worked as a corporate lawyer, first in Oxford and then in the City of London. She has extensive experience of company and business law, and has also worked as the in-house solicitor for an educational group. Susan joined Lee Bolton Monier-Williams in 2016.

Susan retains an interest in biology, particularly horticulture, and enjoys sharing her love of nature with her young children. She is Vice-Chair of Governors at her local school, and has a particular interest in safeguarding and child wellbeing. She is a member of the Charity Law Association and the Ecclesiastical Law Society.

Neil Turpin

Neil Turpin is an ecclesiastical law clerk in the Diocesan Registry who previously worked for 22 years as a residential property lawyer. He was admitted as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives in 1999. Neil joined Lee Bolton Monier-Williams in 2011, as a clerk in the Ecclesiastical Department becoming Chief Clerk since 2023, also working in the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury currently as Chief Clerk. He is a member of the Association of Diocesan Registry Clerks and the Ecclesiastical Law Society. Until the end of 2012 Neil was a long-serving churchwarden and sacristan at a church in Southampton.

Susan Black

Susan Black joined Lee Bolton Monier-Williams in 2015 as an ecclesiastical law clerk in the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury as well as the Diocesan Registries. She has a financial and legal background having worked in trustee, executorships and investment management and, for twelve years, in legal costs as a law costs draftsman and legal costs consultant. She is a member of the Ecclesiastical Law Society.

Patrick Roberts

Patrick Roberts joined the Firm in May 2016 and works as an ecclesiastical clerk in the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the diocesan registries of the Bishops of Ely, Liverpool and Guildford. Patrick holds a PhD in English Literature. He is a contributing editor to the UK Poetry Archive, and works in his spare time as a reviewer and critic. He is a member of the Ecclesiastical Law Society.