Contact
Expertise Summary
I am interested in supervising any aspect of English social and economic history, especially of the period, c. 1250-1540. My particular research interests centre upon later medieval business and domestic and international commerce, particularly the use of credit to finance later medieval trade. I have also written on economic recession in fifteenth-century England. I also have research interests in medieval urban society, with particular reference to medieval urban courts, I have also written on and supervise PhDs on women and work in the later middle ages. I also research crafts and industry, particularly coal mining, in the Sherwood region, in the medieval period.
Teaching Summary
All of my teaching reflects my research interests and has grown directly out of my research and publications. I contribute lectures and seminars to the first-year medieval module, Making the Middle… read more
Research Summary
My research focuses on the English society and its economy in the later Middle Ages. Much of my work so far has concentrated upon medieval towns and their economies. My second monograph, entitled… read more
Current Research
My research focuses on the English society and its economy in the later Middle Ages. Much of my work so far has concentrated upon medieval towns and their economies. My second monograph, entitled Credit and trade in later medieval England that examines the the use of credit to finance later medieval domestic trade. Recent articles and chapters have included studies of small towns and their role as constituent elements within the seigneurial manorial economy, English borough courts and commercial contraction and the impact of cycles of economic growth and decline upon the built environment of medieval towns, the Nottinghamshire coal industry in between c.1200-1540, medieval urban guilds and business networks and a chapter on Chaucer's Merchant in the Canterbury Tales.
Supervision
I welcome enquires from anyone wishing to undertake research on any aspect on English social or economic history of the later middle ages, with particular reference to medieval towns, medieval trade, credit and debt or women and their role in the medieval economy. I have supervised the following PhDs:
i) Judith Mills, Community and change: the town, people and administration of Nottingham between c.1400-1600 (graduated 2010)
ii) Janice Musson, The Assize of Novel Disseisin, 1156-1223 (joint supervision with Gwilym Dodd) (graduated 2016)
iii) Mike Jefferson, Templar lands in Lincolnshire in the early fourteenth century (joint supervision with Gwilym Dodd) (graduated 2016)
iv) Alan Kissane, Lay Urban Identities in Late Medieval Lincoln 1288‐1400 (joint supervision with Rob Lutton) (graduated 2013)
v) Teresa Phipps, Women in later medieval Nottingham (joint supervision with Ross Balzaretti) (graduated 2014)
vi) Hannah Ingram, Archetypes and Individuals: Reconstructing the Users of the Westminster Statute Staple, 1485-1532 (joint supervision with Rob Lutton) (graduated 2019)
vii) Mariele Valci, The 'denari provisini' and the economy of the Roman commune, 1143-1389 (joint supervision with Neil Christie, University of Leicester) (graduated 2019)
viii) Chiara Ravera, Women and business in the Genoese colony of Chios, 1346-1566 (joint supervision with Ross Balzaretti) (graduated 2019)
ix) Esther Lewis, Orthodoxy and heterodoxy in later medieval Bristol (joint supervision with Rob Lutton)
x) Grace Owen, Manorial officers on the Glastonbury manors after the Black Death (joint supervision with Miriam Muller, University of Birmingham)
xi) Joe Peake, 'Waste' in later medieval England (joint supervision with Rob Lutton and Wendy Scase, University of Birmingham)
xii) Pam Powell, Commerce and politics in Chester, 1377-1413 (joint supervision with Gwilym Dodd)
xiii) Scott Lomax, Land use and industry in later medieval Nottingham (joint supervision with Chris King, Department of Classics and Archaeology)
Past Research
My first monograph, Lordship and Medieval Urbanisation studied the role of lordship in the urbanisation of Coventry in the High Middle Ages. My previous research has examined the market for land in medieval towns with articles on Coventry's thirteenth-century property market and on the Church investment in urban property in the later Middle Ages and studies of urban and economic decline in the fifteenth century. I have published an article on female apprenticeship.
Future Research
I am planning to undertake research into the link between climate change and commerce during the opening phases of the 'Little Ice Age' in late thirteenth and early fourteenth-century London.