The Evolution of Audley End PhD Fellowship 2017, University of Sheffield, UK

Project Overview

The Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield and English Heritage, are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded three-year doctoral grant 2017-20, to work on the archaeological archives from Audley End House, Essex.

Audley End house, currently in the care of English Heritage, is one of the most important country houses in England, and yet its archaeological archive (produced from excavations in the 1980s) has received surprisingly little academic attention.

This Collaborative Doctoral Award studentship will seek to address three interrelated questions. Being broad in nature they will allow the student to mold the project to a certain degree to suit their interests. The first aims to examine the potential of the archaeological archive and surviving historical sources to reveal new information about Walden Abbey. The second aims concerns understanding the initial nature of the conversion of the monastery into a house by Thomas Audley in the 1530s. The final aim is to provide a contextual summary to the material culture of the successive households. Great houses of the Tudor and Jacobean periods were not just architectural entities, but populated with a range of objects that reflected everyday activities. The project will provide an overview and interpretation of 16th and 18th century life in the country house as reflected by the ordinary objects revealed though excavation.

Supervisors

Dr Hugh Willmott (University of Sheffield, Department of Archaeology) Dr Charlotte Newman (Collections Curator, English Heritage)

Details of Award

• This studentship is funded through the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme.

• Collaboration between a Higher Education Institution and a museum, library, archive, or heritage organisation is the essential feature of these studentships. This project will be supervised jointly by Dr Hugh Willmott (University of Sheffield) and Dr Charlotte Newman (English Heritage), and the student will be expected to spend time at both Sheffield and Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of The White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH)

• Starts October 1st October 2017

• 3.5 year award (includes a Student Development Fund equivalent to 0.5 years of funding)

• The award pays tuition fees up to the value of the full time home/EU rate for PhD degrees as well as full maintenance (UK citizens and residents only). The value of the stipend will be a minimum of £14,846 (includes additional payment for CDA students).

• The student is eligible to receive an additional travel and expenses grant during the course of the project courtesy of Historic England (on behalf of English Heritage).

Eligibility

• Applicants should hold a first or upper-second class honours degree or equivalent and have competed a masters-level qualification, or be expecting to complete this by the time you start your PhD study

• Due to restrictions on the funding this studentship is open to UK/EU students who meet the residency requirements set out in the RCUK Conditions of Research Council Training Grants.

In general, full studentships are available to students who are settled in the UK and have been ordinarily resident for a period of at least three years before the start of postgraduate studies. Fees- only awards are generally available to EU nationals resident in the EEA. International applicants are normally not eligible to apply for this studentship.

How to apply

• Application deadline: 17th April 2017

• Candidates will need to apply for a PhD at the University of Sheffield, using the online application form.

• Further details on the application process can be found on the Department of Archaeology website

Further Enquiries:

For further information please contact Dr Willmott (h.willmott@sheffield.ac.uk) or Dr Newman (Charlotte.Newman@english-heritage.org.uk)