About Me

My Story

I’m currently curator of the largest collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities in a UK local authority museum: Bolton. I am also a PhD candidate in the History of Egyptology and ancient Egyptian textile collections at the University of York.

Find out a bit more about me below.

Education

My route into archaeology wasn’t the smoothest. I’ve always loved history, but after being told at college that I’d never get a job in archaeology I decided to to do teaching at University. Although I love being able to pass on knowledge to the next generation, I found the course not to my liking, and dropped out. Wanting a new direction I decided to join the army, and applied for officer training at Sandhurst. Surprise! That wasn’t for me either, and after 6 months I decided to follow my passion instead and reapplied to study archaeology at The University of Manchester.

Focusing mainly on British Prehistory whilst at Manchester, particularly the British Mesolithic, I graduated there in 2008.

Following undergraduate studies I continued on to a Masters in Landscape Archaeology at The University of Sheffield from 2010 to 2012.

In 2022 I was accepted onto a PhD program at The University of York. My research draws on the knowledge and passions I developed in the intervening decade working with the amazing Egyptology collections at Bolton Museum.

You can find out more about my PhD research by reading the Research section.

Career

I started working at Bolton Museum just before graduating from my undergraduate degree at Manchester in 2008.

Beginning as a Visitor Services Assistant I also volunteered with the then Keeper of Egyptology, Tom Hardwick, who showed me the ropes of museum curatorial work. In order to pay for my masters degree I also had two other part-time jobs alongside the museum; a cleaner for Bolton Council and a nightclub supervisor.

I eventually moved on to the collections team as a documentation assistant, working predominantly on a major museum store move project. In 2012 I became a curator for Greater Manchester Museums Group, a working partnership of all the local authority museums in Greater Manchester, on their Our Connected History project.

In 2015 I became Assistant Curator at Bolton Museum, and in 2016 became Curator of the Archaeology, Egyptology and World Cultures collections, leading on the largest refurbishment of its permanent Egyptology galleries that it had ever had. The Bolton’s Egypt galleries opened in 2018, displaying over 2000 objects from Bolton’s 12,000 strong collection.

You can find out more about my curatorial experience by visiting the Curatorial Portfolio section.

Archaeological Experience

I have been an amateur archaeologist even before undertaking my archaeological training, having been a member of Wigan Archaeological Society, in the town where I grew up, for almost two decades.

During my undergraduate I was lucky enough to spend several seasons excavating at the world famous Mesolithic site of Star Carr in North Yorkshire, under the directorship of Prof Nicky Milner (York University) and Dr Chantal Conneller (formerly Manchester University). I continued at the site for several seasons after my undergrad, and was privileged to have excavated there for the first and last of the 2000s excavations, with almost every year in between. I also excavated at other sites in the Vale of Pickering, such as Flixton, and went on to excavate at another of Dr Conneller’s sites at Les Varines, Jersey.

I’ve excavated with numerous non-academic excavations, mainly local, around the North West of England including Smithills Hall Bolton, Moss Bank Hall Bolton, Hulton Park Bolton, Rochdale Town Hall, Burscough Roman Fort, Roman Road Wigan, Aspull Bronze Age Ditch Wigan, and Creswell Crags Derbyshire.

Other Professional Activities

In my spare time I like to keep active and involved, particularly in archaeology, and to give back to the community through active participation and education.

Local Societies

I am involved with a number of local societies and groups in the North West. I have been a member of Wigan Archaeological Society for nearly two decades, and serving on its committee for over ten years. I still remain an active member, supporting the group, attending meetings and getting involved in excavations.

I have been a member of Bolton Archaeology and Egyptology Society since 2012, and have been the Chair since 2013. In that time we have grown our membership from less than 15 members to well over 50, and now have people joining from across the world.

I joined Wigan Horus Egyptology Society in about 2015, and I am now an active member of the committee.

The Egypt Exploration Society

I have been a member of the Egypt Exploration Society for a number of years. In 2018 the EES launched their Local Ambassadors programme, taking inspiration from the early Local Honorary Secretaries model set up by the founder Amelia Edwards. I was appointed Local Ambassador for Bolton.

Young Archaeologist’s Club

I have been involved with the Greater Manchester Young Archaeologists’ Club since 2010, when the club was run from Manchester Museum. I have been Leader of the club since 2018 when we moved the club to run predominantly from Bolton Museum.

Council for British Archaeology

I have served on the committee for the Council for British Archaeology North West since 2015 and in 2019 was elected Chair, which I continued to do for the term of three years before stepping down in 2022. I remain an active member of the CBA North West committee.

The Other Stuff

If I get any other spare time I do get involved in other stuff. I make art, mainly replicas of ancient artefacts, which I occasionally sell on sites like Etsy or Redbubble. I also speak on my research interests to groups and societies. And I like to collect Egyptomania.

If you are interested in any of these things then you can find out more by clicking the sections below.

I Make.

I enjoy being creative and i’m inspired by the things left by the peoples of the past. Sometimes people like to buy my creations, they make nice little gifts!

I Speak.

I like to share my research. I speak at conferences, public events and for education. Topics range from archaeology and Egyptology to local and social history.

I Research.

As I complete my PhD I will build up research on various topics including Egyptology, Archaeology and Local History. All my published research can be explored here.