Landscape and Townscape: methods and sources for urban, regional and local history

AHRC Collaborative Research Training Scheme (National Category)

This AHRC-funded programme offers research students an opportunity to acquire and develop skills relating to the study of historical landscapes, urban and rural. A series of free training events addresses key themes relating to the understanding of the historic environment, ensuring best practice in fieldwork, use of documentary sources, other material evidence, and relevant IT packages. The programme is designed to cater for research students from a range of disciplines, including history, archaeology, architectural history and geography.

Specific aims of the programme include:

  • Providing students with insights into the range of archival sources available, and how they can inform the study of the development of landscapes and townscapes
  • Through fieldwork and rural and urban case studies, equip students with the visual and interpretative skills for ‘reading’ the historic environment, particularly the study of building forms, settlement patterns, and the spatial dimensions of urban development
  • Provide students with key skills relating to the use of material evidence, archaeological datasets, and site reports
  • Provide training in the use of databases and GIS for urban and rural history, particularly the study of land use, urban/rural topography, and the analysis of data relating to processes of urbanisation

Students attending each event will receive an information pack containing handouts, bibliographies and guides, plus access to online resources relating to the topics covered.

A maximum of 25 places are available for each event. Priority will be given to research students registered at UK universities. Registration is free, and travel expenses up to a maximum of £80 per return journey per event will be paid on production of a receipt.

Forthcoming Events

Sources for Urban and Rural Landscape History

London Metropolitan Archives, London, EC1R 0HB
09:30 – 16:30, Thursday 29 March 2011

PROGRAMME

9.30        Arrival and coffee

10.00     Sally Bevan (Senior Archivist: Reader Services) “Using the research facilities of LMA”

10.30     Nicola Avery (Principal Archivist: Archive Systems) “An introduction to the LMA electronic catalogue”

11.30     Katharine Short (Archivist) “Slum Clearance and Housing”

13.30     Jeremy Smith (Assistant Librarian) & Sharon Tuff (Senior Archivist: Graphic & Digital Collections) “Urban Infrastructure and Communications”

15.00     David Baldwin (Archivist) “Warehouses and the Riverside”

16.00     Discussion and questions

Register for this course

 

Using Visual Sources in Landscape and Townscape

Centre for Urban History, University of Leicester, LE1 7RH
11.00-5.00, Friday 18 February 2011

This workshop introduces you to the variety and use of visual sources in historical research on landscape and townscape, from fine art to film. There will be two parts to the day.

  1. Visual Histories versus History Visualised
    To start the workshop Dr Katy Layton-Jones of the Centre for Urban History asks a series of provoking questions. Is there an aesthetic of history? Does it inform our response to visual sources and the way we apply them in our work? Do aesthetics create their own historical narratives? In this session we will use a number of iconic images, as well as some less famous images of towns and urban events, to consider these questions and devise practical responses that you can apply in your own research. From identifying aesthetic narratives to citing sources, you will leave this session with renewed enthusiasm for the vast array of visual sources available and a new set of skills with which to utilise them.
  2. Townscapes on Film
    The second half of the workshop will be led by the Director of the Media Archive for Central England, James Patterson. He will reveal the moving image resources available for research and look at the potential use and the interpretation of this material through an exploration of some examples from the archives.
    Since the earliest days of the medium, film has recorded townscapes both deliberately and as the backdrop to other events and subjects. But what contribution can this moving image record make to our understanding of townscape in the 20th Century?

Register for this course

 

The programme is a collaboration between the Institute of Historical Research, University of London; the University of Leicester (Centres for Urban and English Local History); London Metropolitan Archives; and English Heritage.

For further details please contact Dr Simon Trafford, Institute of Historical Research