Centre for Local History
The Centre for Local History at Keele University is one of the longest-established research and teaching centres in the University.
The Centre also hosts the Victoria History of Staffordshire and several volumes of Shropshire, sponsors a lecture and seminar series and publishes original research on the history of the north-west Midlands in its own journal. The director of the Centre is Dr Andrew Sargent.
The Victoria County History 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 project for Staffordshire. 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.
29th (2017)
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
11th (1981)
Eric Richards
The uses of aristocracy: the Sutherlands and Staffordshire in the nineteenth century
10th (1979)
Peter Heath
Staffordshire towns and the Reformation
9th (1977)
Doug Hay
Popular Jacobitism in eighteenth-century Staffordshire
8th (1976)
Michael Greenslade
The Staffordshire historians
7th (1973)
David Palliser
A thousand years of Staffordshire: man and landscape, 913–1973
6th (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
3rd (1965)
D.H. Pennington
County and Country: Staffordshire in Civil War politics, 1640-1644
2nd (1963)
Neil McKendrick
Josiah Wedgwood and the Potteries: the Industrial Revolution in microcosm
1st (1961)
J.W. Blake
The Sneyds of Keele
Publications
The journal Staffordshire Studies, now in its 20th Volume 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, ST5 5BG.
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 contact Dr. Ian Atherton on i.j.atherton@keele.ac.uk
- 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 a.roberts@keele.ac.uk