Contact
Biography
1979-82: BA, Modern History, Oxford University (Open Scholar, Christ Church, Oxford).
1982-83: PGCE (History), Oxford University.
1983-89: History teacher, Lawrence Sheriff School, Rugby, Warwickshire.
1989-2012: Head of History, Rugby High School for Girls, Warwickshire.
2013-17: freelance historical, linguistic and landscape research; tour guide (Rugby School).
2017-20: MA, Viking and Anglo-Saxon Studies, University of Nottingham (School of English).
Since 2020: PhD research, University of Nottingham (School of English).
Research Summary
My current PhD research explores compound English place-names such as Wickham and Wickford. These names have the specific element wīc, a loan-word from Latin vīcus. The key linguistic and historical… read more
Current Research
My current PhD research explores compound English place-names such as Wickham and Wickford. These names have the specific element wīc, a loan-word from Latin vīcus. The key linguistic and historical question is, what is the significance of Old English wīc when used as the specific element of compound English place-names? My research explores various suggestions made by English place-name scholars from 1922 onwards, and especially the published ideas of Margaret Gelling on this topic from 1967 onwards. The research is inter-disciplinary and includes the study of Roman archaeology at and close to the locations of the place-names being investigated. The title of my PhD is: 'Latin loan-words in English place-names: a study of their linguistic, archaeological and chronological contexts, with special reference to Latin vīcus and Old English wīc'.
Past Research
1. Local history research (unpublished) conducted in various areas of England since 1970.
2. Rugby at War, 1914-1918 (published articles, Rugby Advertiser, 2014).
3. Mancetter In Warwickshire: Boudicca's last battlefield? This unpublished research (conducted 2014-2020) explores the evidence for the widely-held view that Mancetter might be the location of Boudicca's last battle against the Roman army c. AD 61. My research includes a new translation of the description of the battle in the Latin text of the Annals of Tacitus, combined with a study of Roman tactics in battlefield selection and a study of Roman military archaeology in strategic locations.