I studied medieval history at the University of Birmingham and digital humanities at King's College London, and between 1995 and 2006 I worked at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) and King’s College London (KCL). In 2006 I joined the University of Roehampton as Director of the British Academy Hearth Tax Project, and I am a  reader in medieval and early modern history, with a developing interest in the digital humanities.  My research and teaching is focused upon medieval economic and social history between the ninth and eleventh centuries and the Restoration hearth tax. I am a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Historical Society and the Higher Education Academy.

B.A. Hons. in medieval and modern history

M.A. in the digital humanities

Ph.D in medieval history

PGCE in history and geography

My doctorate was a regional study of East Anglia, published as Lords and Communities in Early Medieval East Anglia (Boydell, 2005). This book discussed how aristocratic families and ecclesiastical communities in a range of landscapes responded to the pressures and opportunities of crises and conquests between the late tenth and the early twelfth centuries. I have continued to undertake research in medieval history, notably undertaking comparative studies of politics and society in a Global framework, notably through publications in Medieval Worlds (2017; 2023). 

My research on the early modern history developed from an MA thesis in Digital Humanities on the Restoration hearth tax . As Director of the Hearth Tax Project, I have edited hearth tax editions, including the two-volume edition of the 1666 return for London and Middlesex, published in the joint British Academy and British Record Society series, in tandem with the publication of ariticles in journals; e.g. Economic History Review (2017); Local Historian (2011).

In 2019 the British Academy Hearth Tax Project moved to publishing assessments through scholarly digital editions on Hearth Tax Digital, in partnership with the Centre for Information Modelling at the University of Graz, under the direction of Prof. Georg Vogeler.

Hearth Tax Digital uses the innovative methods of an “assertive digital edition”, whereby the transcript and the data relating to the taxation process are pivotal, which means that records can be read and compared across different years and county/city boundaries and searched for qualitative and quantitative analyses. 

• British Academy Hearth Tax Project funded by the British Academy and the Marc Fitch Fund)
• The London and Middlesex Hearth Tax Project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council
• The Landscape of Poverty in later Stuart Essex funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Counci

• Other research projects on the hearth tax have been supported by a various national and local research and charitable organizations.

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

The Hearth Tax Project and Centre provides advice to members of the general public interested in their seventeenth-century ancestors and family history, and assists heritage, media and research organizations (e.g. The National Trust).

Current undergraduate teaching

HSA020C111A Living and Dying in Europe 1000-1600 - HE level 1 course

HSA020N268S Domesday Book: Exploring Anglo-Norman England - HE level 2 course

HSA020X363A Prosperity and Violence in the age of the Vikings c. 870-1020 - HE level 3 course)

Current postgraduate teaching

HIS020L426S Pathways to Genocide: origins and aspects of state persecution in Britain, Europe and Africa (medieval element) 

Hearth Tax Digital (BAHTP, Roehampton University and ZIM, Graz University):

https://gams.uni-graz.at/context:htx