• Culture, Politics & Place

Research Interests

• English medieval town planning
• Town-plan analysis
• Medieval towns and the Church
• European medieval urban development
• North American colonial urban development
• Urban conservation
• Historic towns atlases
• Pilgrimage and religious faith
• Performativity, children and religious worship

Biography

I gained my first degree (BA Hons) at the University of Hull (1969) where I gained the Marchant Prize and learnt my historical geography at the feet of Professor Jay Appleton and Alan Harris.They encouraged me to move on to University College, London to work with Hugh Prince. That got me a Lectureship here at Birmingham in 1971 from where I eventually acquired a PhD (1985), Senior Lectureship (1992) and Readership (1995). I live in Moseley and am a director and trustee of Moseley Community Development Trust (2000- ). I am an Honorary Lay Canon of Birmingham Cathedral (2005- ); Member of the General Synod of the Church of England (2005-10); Member of the Bishop’s Council and Diocesan Synod of the Diocese of Birmingham (1992- ). I am a life Vice President of Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society having been President 1991-94.

Current / Recent Research

‘Medieval Market Places and the Historic Towns Atlas’; an analysis of medieval market place forms and evolution; with Professor Anngret Simms and the European Historic Towns Atlas Group

‘Children’s performativity and religious worship: the case of the cathedral choir’; with Dr Phil Jones

‘Hertfordshire medieval and early modern towns’; with Hertfordshire Local History Group and Dr Nigel Goose, University of Hertfordshire

‘An Historical Atlas of Warwickshire’; with Dr Paul Ell, Queen’s University of Belfast and others

For further information please visit the Urban Morphology  pages

Key Publications since 2001

Books
2009  (in preparation) An Historical Atlas of Warwickshire (Phillimore, Chichester)

2008  A county of small towns: the development of Hertfordshire's urban landscape to c.1800 Ed with Nigel Goose (University of Hertfordshire Press) 420pp

2005  Celebrating a Century of Christ: the Diocese of Birmingham 1905-2005 (Phillimore, Chichester) 222 pp

2002  Edgbaston. A History (Phillimore, Chichester) 134 pp

Journal Papers

2008 Warwickshire 1720-1820. Beighton and Greenwood compared, IMCOS Journal 113, pp. 13-17

2007 'Building England's towns in space and time', J. Urban History, 34(1), 167-78

2005  ‘Planning English medieval street towns: the Hertfordshire evidence’, Landscape History 26, pp. 19-36

2004  ‘Pilgrimage and encounters with God: personal reflections on identity’, Area 36.3, pp. 245-53

2001  'Planning Plots in Grenade-sur-Garonne’ Urban Morphology  5.1: 48-50

Book Chapters

2009 (forthcoming) ‘Social, cultural and political space in English medieval market places’, in Regensburg Forum Mittelalter – Studien, Band 5

2008 (forthcoming) ‘Towns in decline in the British Isles, 1300-1700’, in Schrumpfende Stadte in historischer Perspektive, ed. P Johanek (Stadteforschung 20 Bohlau Verlag Cologne)

2008 with N. Goose, ‘Panoramas and microcosms: Hertfordshire’s towns through both ends of the telescope’, in T.R. Slater and N. Goose eds A County of Small Towns. The development of Hertfordshire’s urban landscape to 1800 (University of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield), pp. 1-26

2008 ‘Roads, commons and boundaries in the topography of Hertfordshire’s towns’, in T.R. Slater and N. Goose eds A County of Small Towns. The development of Hertfordshire’s urban landscape to 1800 (University of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield), pp. 67-95

2008 ‘A little light on the Dark Ages: Atherstone in Anglo-Saxon times’, in: Atherstone, A Pleasantly Placed Town eds N.W. Alcock and M. Hughes (Phillimore, Chichester) pp. 13-16

2008 ‘In the hands of an alien priory: creating a medieval new town’, in Atherstone, A Pleasantly Placed Town eds N.W. Alcock and M. Hughes (Phillimore, Chichester) pp. 17-28

2008 ‘The rise and spread of capitalism’, in P. Daniels, M. Bradshaw, D. Shaw and J. Sidaway, eds An Introduction to Human Geography. Issues for the 21st Century (Pearson, Harlow) (3rd ed) pp 39-60

2007 ‘The landscape of medieval towns: Anglo-European comparisons’, in Landscape History after Hoskins 2, eds M Gardiner and S Rippon (Macclesfield, Windgather Press)

2004 ‘Chiese e monastery nella pianificazione urbanistica delle citta medievali nelle Isole Britanniche’, (Church and monastery in the planning of medieval towns in the British Isles) in Le Terre Nuove. Proceedings of Seminario Internazionale sulle Terre Nuove, 28th-30th Jan. 1999 eds D Friedman and P Pirillo (Biblioteca Storica Toscana 44, Florence) pp. 27-57

2004 ‘Plan characteristics of small boroughs and market settlements: evidence from the Midlands’, in Town and Country in the Middle Ages. Contrasts, Contacts and Interconnections, 1100-1500 eds K. Giles and C.C. Dyer (Society for Medieval Archaeology Research Monograph 20) pp. 23-42

2004 ‘The rise and spread of capitalism’, in An Introduction to Human Geography: Issues for the 21st Century, eds PW Daniels, M Bradshaw, DJB Shaw and J Sidaway (2nd Ed Harlow, Pearson) pp. 36-61

2003 ‘Birmingham’s built environment and planning’ (with PJ Larkham and D Pratt) in C Chinn (Ed.) Historical Bibliography of Birmingham (University of Birmingham Press, Birmingham) 44-77

Research Students since 2001

Rosemary Thornes (PhD) Urban fringe belts of Shrewsbury, self-financing

Antonia Douthwaite, (PhD) Medieval towns in Gloucestershire, School Scholarship

Date Profile Last Updated: 04/12/2008