She led the development of the new educational subject of "Design and Technology" Parkes was born in Seaton in 1925.
[1] Parkes was a nurse during the early part of the second world war after completing her education at Perse School for Girls.
[1] Margaret Parkes and her husband commissioned Leicester based architect James Gowan to design them a holiday home on land they had bought above St David's Cathedral in Wales.
[1] Parkes was the founding chair of the design and technology working group for the national curriculum in 1988 by Kenneth Baker.
[1] Parkes died in Oxford in 2009 having led the introduction of craft, design and technology into the National Curriculum.