Does Jo Amey love a ceramic tile? You may as well ask if Rick Stein loves a fish; the lady is besotted.

She fell in love with these architectural embellishments when studying ceramics and environmental design at Bournemouth’s Lansdowne College in the 1970s.

“When it came to doing the thesis I was inspired by the tiles in the surrounding shops so I thought I may as well study them,” she says.

It became a lifelong passion; slightly put on hold during the family and baby years, but taken up with a vengeance when she had time to devote to it all.

Her father had helped by taking photos of her original tile subjects and when she decided to place these treasures on the Flickr website two years ago, she realised that many of the original tiles had been lost to developers.

Now she has returned with such enthusiasm that she’s running a Ceramic Tile walk as part of Dorset Architectural Heritage Week, in September, and has agreed to take me on part of it.

Normally the walk would commence at that palace of tilery, the Russell-Cotes Museum and Gallery, where almost nowhere is left unadorned by the gorgeous, tactile panels and embossed flora made by the south coast’s dominant producer, Carter & Co of Poole.

We start off from the Echo’s Richmond Hill building and soon arrive at Cutler’s Terrace in Old Christchurch Road, one of the buildings which first inspired Jo.

She explains that it was built in the 1880s as shops but is now the Le Chic club who have proudly placed the elaborate, hand-painted panels on show. At the centre of the brown and green design lies a tile image of the stern-looking Mr Joseph Cutler himself.

“I’m pretty sure that’s a unique concept, including the image of the developer in this way,” says Jo.

She adds: “At the time this was treated with a fair amount of disapproval in the Builder magazine.”

We trot back past the synagogue, once described as ‘the last gasp of red brick seaside orientalism’ and Jo points out the fetching herringbone brickwork on another of the Old Christchurch Road buildings. Things are always looking up for Jo; that’s how she finds these little treasures that so many of us miss, from the row of ceramic flowers on one building to the fascia of the buildings above the Alcatraz Brasserie.

On we go, noticing some rather splendid eagles and the delightful little mosaic spelling out the name and construction date of the Dalkeith Terrace.

We note the flamboyant, Egyptian style tiles produced by Carter for the Dingles building, and the terracotta facade of Debenhams before proceeding to Commercial Road and one of the grand designs of the tour; the 1904 Carter & Co panel outside the Branksome Arms. Jo points out the clear reds and the lines created from squeezed, liquid clay, a sign of great quality.

Then it’s off to see the re-discovered panel at 160 Commercial Road which is being prominence by the people who are renovating this establishment.

Our little tour ends as the Heritage Week one would begin at the Pembroke Arms in West Hill Road, known these days as the Goat and Tricycle. The swooping curves, sumptuous green panels and art nouveau flourishes are beautiful; no wonder Jo now gives paid talks and is looking to show them off to even more.

Ceramic tiles and architectural flourishes may not be as important as new hospitals or Frink sculptures in the grand scheme of things but, Jo believes, they are vitally important.

“They are important to preserve because they are little examples of intricate work and the kind of thing that tell us about design,” she says.

“And they do give real little bits of pleasure to the people who see them.”

Jo can be contacted for walks and talks on tile.lady@btinternet.com