Bücher von Margaret Thomas

Dr Margaret Thomas is an historian with current research interests in eighteenth and nineteenth century Suffolk, in particular its landscape and society. Following graduation from the University of Wales, she taught for six years before research for an M.Phil. at the University of Bristol led to an interest in the interaction of agriculture and industry in the area around Nailsea, near Bristol. She is the author of a number of books on the development of Nailsea, its glassworks and coalfields. In 1993, she returned to Suffolk, the county of her birth. Her research at the University of East Anglia, on trees and woodland in the Suffolk landscape between 1660 and 1870, led to a PhD. She also became a history lecturer and, with Dr Nick Sign, was, for many years Course Leader for the pioneering History degree at Suffolk College, later University Campus Suffolk. During her career, both in Bristol and Suffolk, she has encouraged an interest in local history through extramural appointments at the Universities of Bristol and East Anglia, the WEA and Adult Education Centres. Since retiring, she has continued to give lectures to local history societies and has run courses at the Suffolk Record Office. She was Chairman of the Avon Local History Association and is currently Chairman of the Suffolk Local History Council and council member of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History. A graduate of London University, Dr Nick Sign has enjoyed a long teaching career in High Schools as a department head and Deputy Headmaster, at a College of Education in Lincolnshire and more recently until his retirement in 2008 as a lecturer and degree course joint leader at Suffolk College, now University Campus Suffolk. His research interests include the history of education in the seventeenth century, investigated for his M.Phil, the use of archives in history teaching and the introduction of state secondary education to Suffolk between 1900 and 1939, which he studied for his Ph.D., under Professor Michael Sanderson at the University of East Anglia. He has also contributed a chapter on the development of further education in Suffolk to a forthcoming history of Suffolk College. He is currently a member of council of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History and is a former chairman of the Mendlesham History Group, which has published three booklets on the village's history. As the Vice-Chairman of the Suffolk Local History Council and Hon. Editor of their journal, Suffolk Review he has worked with Dr Thomas to develop and deliver courses in local history sources and methods for societies affiliated to the SLHC. He also gives lectures to local history groups throughout the county and has given illustrated talks and courses at Suffolk Record Office and in the Ipswich Arts Association's Town Lectures series.