Start Here: Welsh History, Biography and Rural Life
New to my work? This page offers a straightforward route through the main subjects I research and write about, from Llandrindod Wells and rural Wales to genealogy, country houses, books and the changing third sector.
Choose a Route
The site is organised around subject guides, books and longer essays. Choose the route closest to your interests and follow the links into the wider archive.
Llandrindod Wells History
Begin here for the Victorian and Edwardian spa town, its mineral waters, grand hotels, railway culture, entrepreneurs, civic institutions and the people who shaped its rise.
Welsh Rural History
Explore farming communities, upland landscapes, work, migration, kinship, local institutions and the social structures of rural Wales.
Family History & Genealogy
For readers interested in reconstructing lives from census returns, parish records, newspapers, wills, photographs, family papers and other archival evidence.
Country Houses & Estates
Read about houses as communities, shaped by owners, servants, estate workers, inheritance, duty, memory and changing social expectations.
Books & Research
Start here for my published books, current research projects and longer studies arising from more than two decades of archival and genealogical work.
Third Sector Commentary
For commentary on charity retail, reuse, Phoenix Community Furniture, voluntary-sector governance, organisational culture and the changing role of community organisations.
Victorian & Edwardian Wales
Explore industry, enterprise, faith, civic culture, rural society, country estates and the social transformations that reshaped Wales between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Notable People of Mid Wales
Biographies of entrepreneurs, politicians, clergy, reformers, sporting figures and community leaders whose influence reached far beyond the region.
A Good First Selection
If you would rather begin with individual pieces, the Essays page presents a curated selection alongside subject guides and the complete essay archive. For biographies of influential figures from the region, see Notable People of Mid Wales.
Where to Begin with My Books
If you would prefer to begin with a book rather than an essay, these three offer different routes into my historical work.
Voices from the Uplands, the broadest introduction to my work on rural Wales, family, community, faith and cultural memory.
The House of Allcroft, for country-house society, landed authority, paternalism, inheritance and the decline of an older social world.
Murder in the Marches, for a more narrative route into nineteenth-century Welsh social history through crime, justice and rural communities.
About the Research
My approach is evidence-led and combines archival research, genealogy, newspapers, local records, photographs, maps, family papers and oral testimony. I am particularly interested in recovering overlooked lives and in understanding how work, faith, kinship, authority and institutions shaped everyday experience.