I am Professor of History and director of the University's Heritage Hub. 

I am a historian of protest, social and political movements and contested public spaces in England from the late 18th century to the present day. I also have research interests in 20th century modernist architecture, town and country planning, and landscape change. I am one of the founders of the Rural Modernism research network. 

My new book, Contested Commons: a History of Protest and Public Space in England, is published now with Reaktion Books.

Publications: 

• Contested Commons: a History of Protest and Public Space in England (Reaktion Books, published on 1 November 2025)
• New Lives, New Landscapes: Rural Modernity in Britain, ed. with Linda Ross, Matthew Kelly and Ben Anderson (OUP, Proceedings of the British Academy, 2023)
• Protest and the Politics of Space and Place, 1789-1848 (Manchester University Press, 2015)
  
• Loyalism and Radicalism in Lancashire, 1798-1815 (OUP, 2009)

Contested Commons: a history of protest and public space in England

Recent publications include: 'The development of political procession routes and policing the right to march in London, 1780–1915', Historical Research, 2025; 'Legal and historical geographies of the Greenham Common protest camps in the 1980s', Journal of Historical Geography, 2023, and 'Chartist studies and Malcolm Chase, a reappreciation', English Historical Review, 2023.

I held a fellowship at the Museum of English Rural Life Fellowship, sponsored by the Open Spaces Society in 2020-21,  https://historyofpublicspace.uk/my-oss-fellowship-at-merl-2021/ . 

I was awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship 2018-19 for 'The history of public space in England, 1700-2000'. See the website: http://historyofpublicspace.uk/ 

Press:

• April 2025, BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, 'General Ludd'
• December 2024, BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, 'Skid Row Messiah'
• July 2024, BBC Radio 4 - Policing Protest series
• October 2022, BBC Radio 4 - Analysis, What's the point of street protest? 
• Dan Snow's History Hit podcast, 'The Enclosures', 2022: https://uk-podcasts.co.uk/podcast/dan-snow-s-history-hit/the-enclosures
• interview by Bill Bailey on BBC One Show, 1 March 2021, on the history of public footpaths: https://youtu.be/eOymGX0umls

I write for a range of publications, including The Modernist, books by the 20th Century Society and Open City London, Tribune, and History Today. I contributed an essay on the history of bins in Joe Lycett's book, Bins (Hurtwood Books, 2023)

I joined the University of Hertfordshire in 2009, following lectureships at the universities of Edinburgh, Bath Spa and Oxford. I read Modern History at St John's College, University of Oxford. I am originally from Rochdale, Greater Manchester. 

I am the director of the university's Heritage Hub, connecting academics and heritage institutions

I am an editor of the UH Press book series Explorations in Local and Regional History