Category Archives: Space

Josephine Butler and spaces of reform in Winchester

Posted on June 5, 2017 by

There ought to be a word for the mixture of thrill and dread that comes with hearing someone talk about your home town on the radio or TV. Coming from Winchester, it’s usually dread that someone in red cords is suggesting … Continue reading →

Posted in Hampshire, History, Space | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Distance and Strangeness: the murder of Anne Spencer

Posted on May 15, 2017 by

I sometimes feel like I’ve spent the last three years trying to figure out my place within history. I still feel like there’s probably a huge mountain of scholarship that I’ve completely missed, but in general I’m starting to work out … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Country, Everyday Life, History, Maps, PhD, Sources, Space, Staffordshire, Wolverhampton | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

That particular articulation of social relations which we are at the moment naming as… Doulton Brook

Posted on December 5, 2016 by

A break from the Irish this week. I’ve been mostly reading Doreen Massey this week – if you’re not familiar with her she’s an urban geographer of major importance, who died earlier in the year (2016 striking again). She was … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Country, History, Housing, Space, Stourbridge | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Black Country Irish: Wolverhampton, 1851

Posted on August 8, 2016 by

I’m starting my series on the Irish in the 19th century Black Country by looking at Wolverhampton. This is familiar ground for me, or at least should be – so I’m broadening my normal hyper-local view of Carribee Island out to look … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Country, Irish, PhD, Quantitative data, Space, Wolverhampton | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Birmingham’s furthest outpost: Michel de Certeau and the tactics of Elan Village’s navvies

Posted on July 4, 2016 by

The Welsh countryside It’s often presumed that times moves slowly in the countryside. Seasons come and go, and the work changes little. The 1901 census for the rural Welsh parish of Llansantffraid Cwmdeuddwr reveals a mixed picture of rural labour. Farmers, agricultural labourers … Continue reading →

Posted in Everyday Life, Powys, Space, Theory, Wales | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Birmingham’s furthest outpost: Michel de Certeau and the strategies of Elan Village’s builders

Posted on June 20, 2016 by

 I was very fortunate recently to get to camp in one of the most beautiful spots in the country, in the Elan Valley, Powys. It’s among the most sparsely-populated parts of the UK, falling within what John Henry Cliffe described as … Continue reading →

Posted in Birmingham, half baked theories, Housing, Landscape, Powys, Space, Wales | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Foucault in Northfield: Birmingham’s reformed pubs

Posted on June 13, 2016 by

As I mentioned recently, apparently historians love pubs more than anything. I was particularly intrigued by a discussion with Nathan Booth at the Urban History conference in Cambridge about the internal layout of pubs in his recently-completed thesis on Stalybridge … Continue reading →

Posted in Birmingham, Space, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Doreen Massey (1944-2016)

Posted on March 12, 2016 by

I came into academia via a fairly circuitous route. After a degree in sound engineering (which I left pretty sure I never wanted to enter a recording studio again; although it did introduce me to some unexpected concepts like dada which, oddly … Continue reading →

Posted in Space | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Other immigrants of Carribee Island: Wolverhampton’s Jewish community 2

Posted on February 8, 2016 by

This post follows my first on the early Jewish community in mid-19th century Wolverhampton, last week. We explored the Bernsteins who lived at 64 Canal Street, and the opening of the Fryer Street Synagogue, Wolverhampton’s first permanent such building. By … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Space, Wolverhampton | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Other immigrants of Carribee Island: Wolverhampton’s Jewish community 1

Posted on February 1, 2016 by

My PhD research focuses on a small section of Wolverhampton town centre in the nineteenth century that was well-known – perhaps notorious, even – for it’s substantial Irish immigrant population. “Carribee Island” and the “Stafford Street district” became by-words when … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing, Space, Wolverhampton | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment