About Me

Ancestry Stuff

I'm Manx, born and raised on the Isle of Man. My maternal grandmother, the eccentric Mamie, was a Kaighin, whose ancestors are traceable back in Manx records to at least the 1700s, in Peel, Ramsey and Douglas.

On the paternal side my Manx cousins include Quilliams who are still on the Island, and Frazers in Australia. My great-grandfather Scott was a hard Cumbrian horse-breeder and businessman, who settled on the Isle of Man in the late Victorian period with his wife Eleanor Jane. They were Primitive Methodists, and bought had farmland at Ballamoar and raised their family to value education, hard work on the land and with horses, being private carriers of the Royal Mail, and simple, unostentatious worship.

My Manx-born Grandfather Scott and his Manx Quilliam cousin bothed voluntarily served in the British Army and were wounded in the Great War. They went into family businesses such as the Douglas-based coal yard, and Grandfather Scott started charabanc tours for holiday-makers and he and Mamie owned and ran a Central Promenade guest house called ‘Allonby’.

My father also did a stint in the British Army - his non-voluntary National Service. His assessment of the value of those years both for him and British military was entertainingly Spike Milliganesque, as were many of his tales of the past.

On my mother’s side are Thomsons from Cathcart, Glasgow. Those Glasgow Fairs of the 1950s have a lot to be responsible for, my mother marrying in to the Island being one of them.

Some of my mother’s family Glasgow family emigrated to Canada (Montreal area) in the 1950s - but my then 16 year old mother, with a stubborn streak, refused to get on the ship. Her father who had gone ahead with his brother was forced to book return passage and attempt to intervene with their only child. Yet two years later my 18 year old mother was marrying my Manx father, eight years her senior, in Cathcart Parish Church, and immediately returning with him to live on the Island. My Manx grandparents were not in attendance.

My Scottish grandparents stayed in Glasgow for the rest of their lives, moving to Broomhill, and my grandfather worked in the shipyards in the drawing office as an instrument maker and skilled draughtsman. My grandmother remained close to her Scottish relatives, and our yearly Christmas parcel included homemade tablet made with Fussell’s milk, macaroon bars, and fruit pudding.

Newcastle University

I went 'across the water' to England when I was 18 to study archaeology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and while I homesick at first and found being plunged into adulthood and city life overwhelming, it was good in many ways to escape the strictures of the Island.

I managed to pull myself together in my final year and graduated in 1982 with a First, and stayed in the Department to do my PhD on Romano-British Villas with full funding from the Isle of Man Government. I loved being at Newcastle University, and I loved being there in the city and the region for so many years. I learned so much and met so many wonderful people, in the Department as well as with RCHME, English Heritage, the local Unit, museums, archives, heritage sites, councils, the National Trust, and other universities.

I was lucky enough to be taught by a number of legendary characters in the Department in Newcastle, such as John Gillam, George Jobey, Charles Daniels and David J Smith, and the ancient historians Brian Shefton, John Lazenby and Jeremy Patterson. My first Professor was Martin Harrison, and under him I was employed by the Department of Archaeology to do some part-time lecturing and tuition. Everyone was larger than life and top of their game, it seemed. I met and grew to know accomplished museums expert Lindsay Allason-Jones and the indomitable departmental librarian Pat Southern, who are wonderful women.

Martin left for Oxford and, under his successor Peter Fowler, I spent time working within the Department as a Research Assistant curating archives, notably the Gertrude Bell Photographic Archive; I undertook the Hadrian's Wall Archive Project for RCHME and Newcastle University under the direction of the Lindsay Allason-Jones and Humphrey Welfare, and with the assistance of just about everybody still breathing who had had anything to do with the frontier.

Between 1990 and 1992, and with the support and goodwill of the Department of Archaeology I established the first Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference - TRAC.

From 1990 onward, I led a small but dedicated team who carried out photographic survey work in the Middle East, relating to Roman villas and farms as well as to the Gertrude Bell Photographic Archive for Palestine. These were difficult times to be in Israel, the Occupied West Bank (Palestine) and East Jerusalem, and the (then) British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem was an excellent base and resource.

After Newcastle

I moved on to RCHME as an archaeological archive specialist, and then to Leicester University as a Research Associate and Tutor, undertaking the organisation for publication of the Libyan Valleys Survey archives.

From there I went to Winchester University (formerly King Alfred's College), where I was a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Archaeology. I was also teaching archaeology at Reading University's Adult Education Department, and was a tutor with the Open University’s Dept of Classical Studies, while having my first baby - busy days!

My teaching and research specialisms were (and are): archaeological theory; the sexed and gendered narratives of archaeology; age and the life-cycle; infancy, infanticide and infant burials; the archaeology of children; Roman villas; the Roman world; the ancient economy; political history.

My publications include books, edited books and articles on my academic research interests, as well as a few more journalistic articles in newspapers and magazines. TV and radio credits include the archaeology documentary The Lost Children of Ashkelon and a political interview on the Victoria Derbyshire Show on Radio 5 Live.

I’m a member of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS).

I was appointed Visiting Fellow in Archaeology at Newcastle University in 2013.

TRAC and theoretical Roman archaeology are still close to my heart, and I remain involved as a member of the TRAJ advisory board; and I act as reviewer for various journals and publications.

Currently I'm focusing on this website, adding Open Access content and Blog pieces when I can, working on a couple of projects: An Archaeology Of Childhood; The Life, Loves and Death of Gertrude Bell to counter the rather disappointing Herzog film; and content about affordable, inclusive food for fieldwork.

Politics

Please also see my Politics Blog on this website.

When I left Winchester I was a Senior Lecturer and the mother of two very young children, looking for a more manageable work-life balance. I managed the Portsmouth Branch of a charity for a while, at which point I was surprised one day to find myself suddenly a lone parent, and then (as you do) went into politics.

In May 2002, I was an elected as a Portsmouth city councillor for the first time, for Fratton ward. It was a role I continued in for 13 years (four terms of office). I’ve been a Non-Executive Director of an NHS Health Trust, worked for a charity and been a trustee for many others, and tutored young people with special needs. My Cabinet positions included Education and Children’s Services for many years, and I’m committed to children’s safeguarding. I also had stints being Cabinet Member for Culture & Leisure (including sport), and Environment & Community Safety. This all sadly came to an end when I resigned, on principle and in protest, over the ongoing Mike Hancock debacle within the Liberal Democrat machine.

I'm no longer on the City Council but I still live in Portsmouth and the city made me an Honorary Alderman in 2016, an honour I hold close to my heart.

Images

Top Image: Graduating from Newcastle University in 1982. Left: Hazel Dodge, me, Dave Boyson, Julian Bennett and Karen Griffiths. Right: Professor Martin Harrison helping me channel that Harry Potter look. Photo credit: John Scott; Copyright: Eleanor Scott.