AHRC Collections & Communities in the East of England Collaborative Doctoral Partnership PhD studentships

Supervisors: Prof John Gardner; Sarah Wilson, Peterborough Museum ([email protected])

This project will be further supported by Dr Lauren Fried (ARU) and Glenys Wass (Peterborough Museum). You will undertake research at both Peterborough Museum and ARU.

Project overview

This study would be the first to concentrate specifically on the objects produced by Prisoners of War (POWs) at Norman Cross near Peterborough, which existed between 1797 and 1816.

The project will enrich historical knowledge of the area, the period and the material objects created. This PhD, and accompanying public talks/knowledge exchange events, will not only encourage greater appreciation of cultures in the area, but engage with notions of art produced by people who exist outside of society.

There were over 200,000 POWs held in Britain at various times during the Napoleonic wars. The Norman Cross camp was the subject of a Time Team investigation in 2009, but little has been written on it. The standard is still Thomas James Walker’s The Depot for Prisoners of War at Norman Cross Huntingdonshire 1796 to 1816 (1913). This has been added to by Paul Chamberlain in The Napoleonic Prison of Norman Cross (2018). There has yet to be a study that centres on the items made by prisoners at this camp.

This project would be the first object-based study of the items made by POWs at Norman Cross. Having chapters that take a 360-degree approach to each classification of object (guillotines; contemporary technology like the spinning jenny; dominoes; watch stands; ships; buildings; straw marquetry) will enable a richer and more holistic research project than a canonical approach.

This would be an innovative way of understanding the importance of these objects within the cultural, political, economic, geographical, and aesthetic period of their production, and offers further opportunity for you to shape the project according to your own specialisms and research interests.

We welcome a diverse range of approaches to these objects, and therefore, we welcome candidates with a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds to apply to this project.

Working closely with Peterborough Museum, you will analyse these objects through a range of lenses – for instance, encouraging generative thought on circular economies and the reuse and redeployment of materials seen as scrap, rather than adding to landfill and greater exploitation of natural resources.

The ARU Employability Service provides extensive training and personalised careers advice. Working within the museum and ARU will provide knowledge of both working environments, aiding employability prospects, with placements being sought at museums where similar items are held.

This studentship will enable skills in public engagement; labelling and catalogue creation; budgets; office skills; and object handling. There will be opportunities to help organise exhibitions and talks, to create websites/blogs to disseminate findings, such as revealing the identities of previously unknown POWs. This will ensure that the research lives on long after the project is finished, and would allow the findings to be more readily incorporated into outreach projects connected to social inequality and wellbeing-based outcomes.

Through day-to-day study and placements, you will carry out training and skills development to support a potential future career in the museum and heritage sector, as well as academia and other related fields.

Research questions

The overarching research question is: what did these items mean to the prisoners, and why did people buy them?

Research themes include:

• Context: How do these items relate to similar items produced at other prisons and currently held by other museums and collections such as the V&A? To what extent do these objects affect understanding of the historical, cultural and geographic locations they were manufactured in? Were the items manufactured to set patterns, or was this decided on by those producing them? How was labour divided between skilled and unskilled workers? Did mass production take place? What is the provenance of the items - were some produced in prison hulks or elsewhere, possibly in the POWs country of origin? Did the items fill a gap in existing local markets, or did they compete with goods produced by established manufacturers?
• Purpose of the objects: What are the aesthetic and technical elements of the objects? How does the reuse of scraps fit with contemporary theories on waste and the circular economy?
• Finance: What did the sales mean to prisoners financially – were they essential to their security? How did gambling and illicit activities affect the prisoners and the objects?
• Wellbeing: To what extent did POWs gain a sense of wellbeing from engaging in this craft activity, and was their work exploited by others?
• The people: Who were the prisoners? The majority of the collection was acquired retrospectively from 1897, making ascertaining the maker's identity and confirming provenance problematic. The names of those producing these items are mainly unknown, although Corporal Jean De Laporte, who produced straw pictures, is known. Other art works seem to have been collaborative endeavours. One strand of this project would be to look at the identities of the workers. To what extent were the buyers of POW art and objects like guillotines participating in a dark consumerism that possibly undermined the horrors of war?

Research with Peterborough Museum

This research studentship is one allocated to Anglia Ruskin University by the AHRC to support the work of Peterborough Museum.

You will be expected to spend time carrying out research and gaining relevant experience with the partner in Peterborough as part of the studentship.

You will spend a significant proportion of time working with collections based at Peterborough Museum, where you will have opportunity to engage with colleagues from across a range of curatorial disciplines and collections.

Given the topic of research, we particularly welcome applications from candidates with lived experience of the contemporary social care and welfare systems in the UK, such as care leavers. We also particularly encourage and welcome applications from Peterborough and the neighbouring region.

Register your interest in the ARU/Peterborough Museum information event

Apply to study full-time

Apply to study part-time

Supervisors: Dr Joseph Harley; Rachel Kidd, Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse ([email protected])

Project overview

Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse holds a unique and fascinating collection of over 1,000 objects linked to the lives, living conditions and institutionalisation of some of society’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

These objects are wide-ranging and include, among others, textiles, shoes, bobbins, toys, ceramicware, knives, tobacco goods, tiles, cutlery, furniture and a woven rush mattress from 1777 (when the workhouse opened) to 1948 (when it closed).

Bound up within the walls of one institution over more than 150 years, this collection presents the unique opportunity to explore the materiality of workhouse life, and gain a greater understanding of how inmates, whose voices are often lost to history, would have experienced, interacted with, and felt within Gressenhall throughout its history as a House of Industry (1777-1836), Mitford and Launditch Union Workhouse (1836-1930) and Gressenhall Public Assistance Institution (1930-1948).

You will analyse these objects to take a fresh and innovative look at the lives of the people who lived in the institution. This is important to do. Workhouses were a pivotal part of the experience of poverty for millions of people during the Old and New Poor Laws (1601-1948). However, we still know relatively little about the experience of the pauper from the material perspective.

You will work closely with the objects at Gressenhall to write your thesis, but also engage in research on the building, archival work at Norfolk Record Office, and objects held elsewhere such as across The Workhouse Network and other museums in Norfolk.

As well as completing a PhD thesis, you will work alongside volunteers at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse and contribute to educational resources (e.g. lesson plans, catalogue entries and social media posts) and at least one exhibition. This will ensure that the research lives on long after the project is finished, and would allow the findings to be more readily incorporated into outreach projects with social inequality and wellbeing-based outcomes.

Through day-to-day study and placements, you will carry out training and skills development to support a potential future career in the museum and heritage sector, as well as academia and other related roles. Placements are expected to total 3-6 months full-time (or part-time equivalent) over the duration of the project.

Research questions

By examining the objects, understanding the building and archival research, the you will consider what this collection can tell us about the lives of paupers in Gressenhall. The core questions are:

• What can we learn about life in the workhouse from the objects inmates used?
• What can the objects tell us about the experiences of paupers through activities such as food, pastimes, work, childhood, discipline, health, and sleep, and how do these relate to people’s experiences today?
• How might close engagement with these objects challenge dominating narratives about welfare history and promote a closer understanding of individual and community identities in the workhouse?
• How can these narratives be used to promote equality and a sense of identity for people who experience relative poverty, disability or institutionalisation today?

Research with Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse

You will be expected to spend time carrying out research and gaining relevant experience with the partner Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse in Gressenhall, Dereham, Norfolk. You will spend a significant proportion of time working with collections based at Gressenhall, either in concentrated periods or through weekly/biweekly visits.

This museum and working heritage farm is nestled in 50 acres of Norfolk countryside and is a popular attraction among families, researchers and visitors to Norfolk. It is located in the former Mitford and Launditch Union Workhouse building (opened 1777) and tells the story of workhouses in Norfolk, as well as life in Norfolk through the Norfolk Rural Life Museum collection.

You will have the opportunity to become embedded in the collection and building throughout your research, as well as becoming ‘part of the team’ alongside the curator and volunteers to uncover and present stories about life in the workhouse.

As part of Norfolk Museums Service (ten museums across Norfolk), you will have the opportunity to engage with colleagues from across a range of curatorial disciplines and collections. As a designated teaching museum, Norfolk Museum Service is well versed in providing skills development and training and is committed in helping you develop skills alongside your research.

Given the topic of research, we particularly welcome applications from candidates with lived experience of the contemporary social care and welfare systems in the UK, such as care leavers. We also particularly encourage applications from Norfolk and the neighbouring region.

Between 10am-2pm on Thursday 18 April, we will be opening up Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse for potential applicants to come to the museum, meet the supervisors, view some of the objects, and look around the workhouse. If you would like to come to this event, or cannot come and would like to arrange to visit at an alternative time, email Rachel Kidd at [email protected] by Monday 15 April.

Apply to study full-time

Apply to study part-time