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Irene Haycock BA (Hons) MPhil

PhD Candidate, Downing College

My doctoral research investigates aspects of agrarian change and by-employment in early modern Staffordshire, set within the context of regional farming systems and early industrialization.

Biography

Career

  • Former Company Director
  • Former Charity Trustee

Qualifications

  • PhD Candidate, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (2010-present)
  • MPhil Geographical Research, University of Cambridge (2008-9)
  • BA Hons, Geography with History, Keele University (2005-8)

Awards

  • ESRC +3 Studentship Nomination Quota Award, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (2010)
  • Ede and Ravenscroft Prize (top scholar to enter research, Keele University, 2008)
  • Second year Undergraduate Geography Prize, Keele University (2007)

Research

My doctoral research investigates aspects of agrarian, industrial and occupational change for selected parishes in early modern Staffordshire, set within the context of regional farming systems. Staffordshire was predominantly a pastoral farming county and was renowned for its precocious industrial development and early population growth. I aim to discover the nature and the extent of agriculture and by-employment in different ecological sub-regions of the county through the quantitative analyses of surviving probate inventories and tithe records. Further insight on technological practice and economic decisions at the farm level will be gleaned from sources such as estate records, parish documents, contemporary travel and topographical writings, natural histories and the Board of Agriculture reports.

The PhD builds upon both my BA dissertation on the agricultural origins of the cotton textile industry in north-east Staffordshire, and a pilot study which was undertaken for my MPhil. The former concerned by-employment and processes of industrialization during the period 1650 to 1850, using data from probate inventories, the enumerator's return, factory inspectorate returns and business directories. The MPhil was a probate inventory analysis focusing on 1650 to1725. It established that different dual economies (that is, cottage industry with farming) were well developed in the southern metal-working and mining district of Sedgley, and in the north-eastern commercial dairying area around Rocester. Farmers were found to have significantly higher wealth levels at the point of death if they were by-employed. It also confirmed that there were different distributions of farming types in the two areas. However, the occupational data for these two parishes raised the distinct possibility that the occupational descriptors recorded in the wills and probate inventories may not fully represent the extent of farming undertaken by the individuals inventoried or their households. This is under further investigation as part of the PhD.

Publications

Selected publications

  • Haycock, I. J. (2009) Agrarian Change in Staffordshire, 1550-1725, Unpublished Masters Thesis, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge.
  • Haycock, I. J. (2008) Early Industrialization in North-east Staffordshire: The Case of the Cotton Textile Industry, Unpublished BA Dissertation, Earth Sciences and Geography, Keele University.

Conference and seminar presentations

  • Aspects of Agrarian Change in South Staffordshire: A Case Study of Kingswinford, 1650-1750. Economic and Social History Workshop, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, 2012.
  • Aspects of Agrarian Change in South Staffordshire: A Case Study of Kingswinford, 1650-1750. Invited paper: public lecture at the Jack Leighton Seminar Series, Keele University, 2012.
  • Agrarian Change in early modern Staffordshire. Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, Brown Coffee presentation, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, 2010.
  • Agrarian Change in Staffordshire, 1650-1725. Poster presentation, Wolfson College Research Day, University of Cambridge, 2010.
  • Agrarian Change in Staffordshire, 1550-1725. Graduate Forum, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, 2009.

Teaching

  • 2011-12: Supervisor Geography Tripos, Part 1A: The Historical Geography of Globalization

External activities

  • 2011-present: Graduate Representative on the Safety and Security Committee (Department of Geography)
  • 2011-present: Representative on the Graduate Student-Staff Consultative Committee (Department of Geography)
  • 2011-present: Post-graduate Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
  • 2009-present: Geography Ambassador for the Royal Geographical Society
  • 2008-present: Graduate member of the Historical Geography Research Group (Royal Geographical Society)
  • 2008-present: Member of the Economic History Society
  • 2008-present: Member of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure
  • 2007-present: Student member of British Agricultural History Society
  • 2006-8: Student member Staff-Student Liaison Committee, Geography, Keele University (Chair, 2007-8)