I specialise in women’s social history, occupations (eg hatting, bakers, tailors and seamstresses, laundresses and charwomen, textile mills and their history – wool, silk and cotton, the social history of domestic lighting gas, electricity and candles (did you know they were taxed 1709-1831 and novelists used lighting as shorthand for domestic prosperity?) I am happy to consider other topics.  I have delivered talks to eg The Society of Genealogists, The University of the Third Age, the Guild of One Name Studies, various Family History Societies and others.

Former talks include;

          The Match Girls Strike

         Why I am a Suffragiste not a Suffragette

Cottonopolis; -Manchester, its history and archival sources and resources

The Staff of Life; the history and working practices of bakers and confections

Hats and Hatmaking

Various permutations of silk, wool and cotton spinning throughout the ages

Washday blues; the history of laundry throughout the ages

‘Turning on the Light;’ the history of domestic lighting

I deliver lectures in person and online.    Please contact me for availability and your requirements