Early Modern History and Heritage

16th-18th Century Workshops, Research, Writing, and Remaking

I am a post-doctoral researcher working in early modern history. My areas of interest are food, hospitality, decor/material culture, domesticity, healthcare, seasonality, preserving techniques for ingredients, and textiles. My PhD focused on early modern commensality (communal dining) amongst gentry families in Lancashire and Cheshire across the religious and political spectrum. I am interested in the intersection between embodiment and experience, environment, the senses, faith, politics, and the home. To consider this in a holistic way I use the related theories of assemblage and affect – these allow me to balance archival and published primary sources with surviving domestic interiors, remaking, and material culture.

Alongside my academic work, I also work in museums and heritage, with 20 years’ experience in historical/art historical interpretation including work for the National Trust. My website is a space for my thoughts on historical remaking and research as well as a place to document what I’ve been working on in the heritage sector.

I research, design, and facilitate heritage workshops which incorporate creative health and the five ways to wellbeing, craft, art, historical remaking, gardening, landscape, and local history. Areas of history I cover include 16th-18th century history (Tudor through to Georgian) as well as local north-west history up to and including 19th/early 20th century. History talks and presentations can be researched and designed to meet individual needs, in Tudor costume if required. All workshops and talks can be geared towards age group, school key stage (including primary, secondary, A-level) or interest. Practical elements can include historical recipes and cookery demonstrations, crafts, forest school elements, plants, creative health, healthcare, and the domestic household. Please get in touch via this website if you would like to enquire about bookings.