PhD - Part-time
"A study of the hunting parks and chaces of Tonbridge - 1250-1700"
Dr Sheila Sweetingburgh and Dr Claire Bartram
In recent years a growing body of work has examined medieval deer parks, considering who created them, how they were used on a daily basis and, in many cases, their eventual disparkment. Tonbridge had two deer parks, as well as two unenclosed chaces, and surviving documentation offers an excellent case study to consider the factors that shaped their development and use, how they were influenced by growing autonomy from seigneurial control and the process by which they were disparked.
I spent my working life as a chartered tax advisor and for the last eighteen years I was manager of International Taxation at Lloyd's of London. When I retired I decided to do something different and went back to university. I studied for my BA and MA at the University of Kent and then started a PhD at Canterbury Christ Church University.
The thesis will build on a project initiated by Tonbridge Historical Society in 2016 to raise awareness of Tonbridge's medieval history and produce a book for local readership. It continues my work as a member of that group but with a more academic approach, and provides the opportunity to consider issues outside its remit.