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Research Interests

Much of my research over the past three decades has been on the history of resource management on common land and, in particular, the role of manor courts. My study of manor court byelaws and the management of common land in northern England, published as The Harvest of the Hills (2000) led on to further work on the records of manorial administration, including the and a sister project in Lancashire. My work on common land was developed further in the in collaboration with Newcastle Law School from 2007 to 2010, which formed part of the AHRC Landscape & Environment Programme. A major project in retirement was to write a book on the history of common land in Britain, entitled Common Land in Britain: a history from the Middle Ages to the Present Day (Boydell Press, 2022). It aims to provide, for the first time, a broad survey of the history of commons in England, Wales and Scotland since the medieval period.

I have also collected , from medieval and early modern northern England, which shed light on environmental management strategies by local communities, as well as broader issues of social control. These have been published in the Surtees Society's record publication series as Manorial Bylaws from Northern England (Surtees Society Vol. 231, published 2026). It contains over 40 sets of byelaws (5 in the form of the 'articles of enquiry', which structured the business of manor courts, and 36 'pain lists', lists of byelaws and the penalties for breaking them), drawn from across the six northern counties of England and dating from the 15th to 18th centuries.

A second strand of my research has focused on the history of Cumbria. I have prepared scholarly editions of key archival sources for the history of the region, Thomas Denton's Perambulation of Cumberland, 1687-8 (Surtees Society Vol. 207, published in 2003) and John Denton's History of Cumberland (Surtees Society Vol. 213, published in 2010), which provides a modern scholarly edition of the earliest attempt at a history of the county, compiled c.1600. From 2010 to 2016 I was founding director of the , and in 2016 to 2017 held a part-time position as Editor of the Victoria County History nationally in the Institute of Historical Research at London University. I am currently researching and writing parish histories for a projected Victoria County History volume covering Cockermouth and its hinterland.

I drew my historical interests in the Lake District together in The Language of the Landscape: a journey into Lake District history (Handstand Press, 2019), which is a personal exploration of the landscape history in the Lake District, focusing on the Cocker valley in Cumbria.

Professional Activities

• President of The Surtees Society.
• Past President of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society.
• Member of The National Archives' Manorial and Tithe Documents Panel
• Member of Editorial Board of Quaker Studies
• Member of panel of specialist advisors for Lake District World Heritage Site