Research
Research groups
Research interests
- My research centres on three key areas:
- Late medieval naval operations and logisticsMedieval and Tudor maritime communitiesLate medieval and Tudor merchant shipping
Current research
My current research is underpinned by two research grants. In 2022 I (with Dr John McAleer, University of Southampton and the Geodata Institute, University of Southampton) was awarded £1million by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to undertake a project entitled ‘English Merchant Shipping, Maritime Communities, and Trade from the Spanish Armada to the Seven Years War, c.1588-c.1765’. This project will chart the growth of England’s (later Britain’s) emergence as a global trading nation and maritime power, challenging pre-existing notions of how and why the nation’s maritime empire emerged as it did. This will be achieved by undertaking the first, systematic, nationwide investigation of the records related to maritime commercial activity over two centuries. An interactive website housing a searchable database of ships, merchants, and other matters relating to the project will be launched soon.
In 2022 I was also awarded £180,000 by the Janus and Oxus Foundations to undertake a research project that will investigate Kent's maritime history with particular focus on trade, shipping, and Kent's overseas connections, c.1450-c.1650. I am running this project in collaboration with Dr Shelia Sweetinburgh (Canterbury Christ Church University). The findings from this project will be linked to the website which will be produced from the ‘English Merchant Shipping’ project above.
Prior to the above grants in 2013/14 I was awarded £250,000 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council entitled ‘The Evolution of English Shipping Capacity and Shipboard Communities from the early 15th Century to Drake’s Circumnavigation (Grant reference: AH/L004062/1). This project has since produced a free to access searchable database of c.53000 ship-voyages from over 600 English, Welsh and Channel Islands ports and includes interactive port and trade routes maps. The website can be accessed here: http://medievalandtudorships.org/