About

I’m a genealogist, oral historian, heritage creative practitioner, writer, and editor.

In 2020 I completed a Masters degree in Local History, with Merit, from the Open University, following on from gaining my Postgraduate Diploma in History, with Distinction, in 2018. My dissertation explored changes to small-scale farming in Haslingden, Lancashire brought about by the Industrial Revolution, focusing on the lives of the Woods farming family from 1837 to 1888. In 2015 I gained a first-class honours degree in Humanities with Creative Writing and Art History, again from the Open University.

Currently I’m studying a selection of modules with Pharos Tutoring and Teaching Ltd, and am working towards the Family History Skills and Strategies Intermediate Certificate. This programme investigates a variety of subjects, including apprenticeships, wills, Nonconformists, Victorian crime and punishment, and military ancestry.

From November 2021 to December 2022 I managed the Woodland Trust’s Smithills Estate History Group in their endeavours to research, write and publish a book about the history of the ordinary people who lived on the estate in the past.  As part of my role I edited the book to publication. The project formed part of a wider historical project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, focusing on the history and social history of Smithills Estate near Bolton, Lancashire. Over several centuries it has operated as an industrial site, leisure venue and farming area.

In 2020, I adminstered two projects for the National Trust. The Steam Yacht Gondola Oral History Project was part of celebrations surrounding 40 years since the yacht’s restoration by apprentices at Barrow shipyards, and the Fell Foot Park Oral History Project on the shores of Windermere concentrated on its history since the 1930s. Between 2019 and 2021 I also managed the Woodland Trust’s Smithills Estate Oral History Project.

During 2017 I worked via tender with the programming team at Lakeland Arts developing scripts and voice recordings for four augmented realities as part of the Blackwell Project at Blackwell, the Arts and Crafts House, Bowness-on-Windermere. My research centred on the Holt family and their interaction with Blackwell as a holiday home.

I’m a member of the Oral History Society, British Association for Local History, British Agricultural History Society, Ambleside Oral History Group, Kendal Oral History Group, and am a Friend of the Regional Heritage Centre at Lancaster University.