Centre for Local History

Local history is the root of all history and all places have their own particular histories. This course is academic in approach but caters for a wide constituency. Are you a family historian who would like to learn how to find out more about the context in which your ancestors lived? Or perhaps you are interested in the history of your house or community, and would like to find out how you can develop your research skills so that you can discover more for yourself. Or perhaps you are a complete beginner who wants to find out about local history? Then this course is designed for you. Beginners can find out about local history; the more experienced can improve their research. This course is open to all and there are no entrance qualifications beyond a desire to learn and a willingness to talk.

Former students have continued from the Certificate to publish their own local histories, to study for further research degrees including an MRes and PhD. Others have gone on to work in museums and archives.

The course runs for two years but recruits each year.

For further advice  Dr Andrew Sargent.

The  project might well be the oldest ongoing historical research project in the world. It was founded in 1899, with the original intention of providing a local history of all England's counties. Its history has been stop-start in the intervening century, but the History department at Keele, with the generous support of Staffordshire County Council, have long been involved in the . The lead at Keele for the project is Dr Nigel Tringham, who has already brought volumes 9, 10 and 11 to fruition, and is now assisted by Dr Andrew Sargent, although other historians, including Dr Ian Atherton (who also edits Staffordshire Studies) and Dr Alannah Tomkins have also provided important contributions to the project.

The EARL Lecture was first delivered in 1961 and the text is published in the journal Staffordshire Studies. It was endowed by Jack Leighton of Newcastle-under-Lyme, a tax inspector with a keen interest in the history of North Staffordshire (especially ceramics), and named in memory of his his wife. The Lecture is held every two years and is intended to encourage prominent historians who have not yet worked on the history of Staffordshire to turn their attention to the county.

28th (2015)

Professor Richard Cust
Church Monuments in post-Reformation Staffordshire

27th (2013)          

Professor Pauline Stafford
Staffordshire and the Making of England in the 10th and early 11th centuries

26th (2011)

David Howell
A Sheik in Staffordshire: Oswald Mosely and the Labour Party

25th (2009)

Ralph Houlbrooke
Politics and Personalities in Mid Tudor Staffordshire

24th (2007)

Paul Everson
‘A setting of cheap thrills and false emotions’?: archaeology, parks and gardens in Staffordshire

23rd (2005)

Pamela Sambrook 
Servants, Family and Business: Domestic Service in Staffordshire in 1851

22nd (2003)

John Bourne
How Staffordshire won the Great War

21st (2001)

Christopher Dyer
The urbanizing of Staffordshire: the first phases

20th (1999)

David Cannadine
Josiah Wedgwood and the History of Parliament

19th (1997)

David Hey
The distinctive surnames of Staffordshire

18th (1995)

Robert Bartlett
The miracles of St Modwenna of Burton

17th (1993) 

Margaret Spufford
Poverty Portrayed: Gregory King and Eccleshall in the 1690s

16th (1991)

W. A. Speck
Staffordshire in the reign of Queen Anne

15th (1989)

Jean Birrell
The Forest and the Chase in medieval Staffordshire

14th (1987)

Christopher Taylor
Medieval settlement in Staffordshire

13th (1984)

Donald Greene
Samuel Johnson’s Staffordshire

12th (1983)

Margaret Gelling
Some thoughts on Staffordshire place-names

11^th (1981)

Eric Richards
The uses of aristocracy: the Sutherlands and Staffordshire in the nineteenth century

10th (1979)

Peter Heath
Staffordshire towns and the Reformation 

9^th (1977)

Doug Hay
Popular Jacobitism in eighteenth-century Staffordshire

8^th (1976)

Michael Greenslade
The Staffordshire historians

7^th (1973)

David Palliser
A thousand years of Staffordshire: man and landscape, 913–1973

6^th (1971)

Sir Nikolaus Pevsner
Some aspects of Staffordshire architecture

5th (1969)

Rodney Hilton
Lord and peasant in Staffordshire in the middle ages

4th (1967)

Joan Thirsk
Horn and thorn in Staffordshire: the economy of a pastoral county

3^rd (1965)

D.H. Pennington
County and Country: Staffordshire in Civil War politics, 1640-1644

2^nd (1963)

Neil McKendrick
Josiah Wedgwood and the Potteries: the Industrial Revolution in microcosm

1^st (1961)

J.W. Blake
The Sneyds of Keele

The journal Staffordshire Studies, now in its 20th Volume (see link for details) is published annually by the Centre for Local History. It covers all aspects of the history of the historic county of Staffordshire, including the parts of the south of the county transferred to the West Midlands in 1974. Articles, all other contributions and editorial correspondence should be addressed to the editor, Staffordshire Studies, Centre for Local History, University of Keele, Keele, Staffordshire, .

Editors

Dr Ian Atherton

ISSN 0950-1630

Price: All Staffordshire Studies publications are published annually on subscription at a cost of £9 for individuals, £11 for institutions, one-off sales and overseas subscribers. Postage and packing is extra.

For enquiries about subscription or one-off purchases, please  Staffordshire Studies, Room CM0.25, Claus Moser Treatment Centre, Recru it networ, Keele, Staffordshire, . Tel: 01782 733200.

• Water Mills of the Borough of Newcastle, Edited by George Riley  - OUT OF STOCK
• Agents of Revolution  - OUT OF STOCK
• John and Thomas Gilbert the 'canal pioneers', Peter Lead
• The Miners of Staffordshire 1840-1914, Edited by John Benson - OUT OF STOCK
• Churchill China. Great British Potters since 1795, Rodney Hampson  £19.50.

      Books still in print can be had postfree in the UK by emailing [email protected]