Sarah Speight | |
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Awards | National Teaching Fellowship |
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Thesis | Family, faith and fortification: Yorkshire 1066–1250 (1993) |
Doctoral advisor | Philip Dixon |
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Sarah Speight FRSA is an academic and Deputy Vice Chancellor at Nottingham Trent University. Previously,she was Professor of Higher Education and Pro Vice Chancellor for Education and Student Experience at the University of Nottingham prior to which she was head of the School of Education.
Speight studied at the University of Manchester and went on to complete a PhD at the University of Nottingham. Her research spans the fields of higher education,archaeology and history.
Speight studied at the University of Manchester where she completed a Bachelor of Arts in history. [1] She went on to study at the University of Nottingham,completing a Master of Arts in 1989 [2] and a PhD at the same institution in 1993,titled Family,faith and fortification:Yorkshire 1066–1250,the latter under the supervision of Philip Dixon. [3]
Speight works at Nottingham Trent University,joining as Deputy Vice Chancellor in August 2024. Prior to this she was Pro Vice Chancellor for Education and Student Experience at the University of Nottingham where she also taught for the Schools of Continuing Education,Education,and History. She was also head of the university's School of Education for five years. [1]
After completing her PhD,Speight took up a part-time teaching role at the University of Nottingham in the Department of Adult Education. [4] In 2006,she received the university's Lord Dearing Award, [1] which recognises "outstanding achievements ... in enhancing the student learning experience". [5] In 2013,Speight was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship. [6]
Speight was Honorary Treasurer of the Castle Studies Group between 1998 and 2001. [7] Between 2001 and 2006,Speight was the Archaeology Editor for the Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire. [8] [9] [10] Her specialism in castles led to her appearing in episodes of Time Team about Beaudesert Castle (2002) and Codnor Castle (2008). [11] Speight was part of a movement examining the impact of castles on settlements and the landscape;Speight contributed a study of castle chapels to this area. [12]
In July 2024,Speight took up the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Nottingham Trent University. [13]
Speight has published articles in venues such as Journal of Educational Administration and History , Château Gaillard: Études de castellologie médiévale, History Compass , and the Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire.
A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to build with unskilled labour, but still militarily formidable, these castles were built across northern Europe from the 10th century onwards, spreading from Normandy and Anjou in France, into the Holy Roman Empire, as well as the Low Countries it controlled, in the 11th century, when these castles were popularized in the area that became the Netherlands. The Normans introduced the design into England and Wales. Motte-and-bailey castles were adopted in Scotland, Ireland, and Denmark in the 12th and 13th centuries. By the end of the 13th century, the design was largely superseded by alternative forms of fortification, but the earthworks remain a prominent feature in many countries.
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university located in Nottingham, England. Its origins date back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design, which still operates within the university.
Château Gaillard is a medieval castle ruin overlooking the River Seine above the commune of Les Andelys, in the French department of Eure, in Normandy. It is located some 95 kilometres (59 mi) north-west of Paris and 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Rouen. Construction began in 1196 under the auspices of Richard the Lionheart, who was simultaneously King of England and feudal Duke of Normandy. The castle was expensive to build, but the majority of the work was done in an unusually short period of time. It took just two years and, at the same time, the town of Petit Andely was constructed. Château Gaillard has a complex and advanced design, and uses early principles of concentric fortification; it was also one of the earliest European castles to use machicolations. The castle consists of three enclosures separated by dry moats, with a keep in the inner enclosure.
Nottinghamshire is a county that is situated in the East Midlands of England. The county has history within the Palaeolithic period, dating anywhere between 500,000 and 10,000 BCE, as well as early Anglo-Saxon communities, dating to 600 CE. Furthermore, the county has significance in the political aspects of English history, particularly within intercommunal fighting, and its economics is historically centred around coal and textiles.
Flintham is a village and civil parish in the Rushcliffe district in Nottinghamshire, 7 miles from Newark-on-Trent and opposite RAF Syerston on the A46. It had a population of 597 at the 2011 census, estimated at 586 in 2019, and a fall to 563 at the 2021 census. The village name was taken by the Ham class minesweeper HMS Flintham.
Castle chapels in European architecture are chapels that were built within a castle. They fulfilled the religious requirements of the castle lord and his retinue, while also sometimes serving as a burial site. Because the construction of such church edifices was expensive for the lord of the castle, separate chapels are not found at every seat of the nobility. Often, a secondary room furnished with an altar had to suffice.
Thoroton is a small English village and civil parish in the borough of Rushcliffe, and the county of Nottinghamshire, with a population of 112 at the 2011 census, and increasing to 130 at the 2021 census. The village has conservation area status. Its Anglican parish church is a Grade I listed building.
A ringwork is a form of fortified defensive structure, usually circular or oval in shape. Ringworks are essentially motte-and-bailey castles without the motte. Defences were usually earthworks in the form of a ditch and bank surrounding the site.
Sauvey Castle is a medieval castle, near Withcote, Leicestershire, England. It was probably built by King John in 1211 as a secluded hunting lodge in Leighfield Forest. It comprised a ringwork or shell keep, with an adjacent bailey; earthwork dams were constructed to flood the area around the castle, creating a large, shallow moat. The castle was occupied by the Count of Aumale in the early reign of Henry III, but it then remained in the control of the Crown and was used by royal foresters until it fell into disuse in the 14th century. By the end of the 17th century, its walls and buildings had been dismantled or destroyed, leaving only the earthworks, which remain in a good condition in the 21st century.
An arrowslit is a narrow vertical aperture in a fortification through which an archer can launch arrows or a crossbowman can launch bolts.
The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948.
The Château de Vaudémont is a ruined 11th-century castle in the commune of Vaudémont in the Meurthe-et-Moselle département of France. At its greatest extent, the castle measures about 500 by 250 metres . The castle is one of a group of four castles built around the same time on highland sites along the Moselle valley between Nancy and Metz in northeast France. The other three castles are Dieulouard, Mousson and Prény; of the four, Vaudémont is the largest and best preserved. It was built as a hill castle in the 11th century for the Counts of Vaudémont, possibly for Gérard I. The architect is unknown. The remains are part of the curtain wall and the keep, the so-called tour Brunehaut constructed with recycled Gallo-Roman remains. It was repaired during the 15th century, dismantled in 1639 on the orders of Louis XIII, and restored in 1930.
The Château de Châtillon-Coligny is a castle, later replaced with a smaller château, in the commune of Châtillon-Coligny in the Loiret département of France.
Thomas J. Finan,, is an American medieval historian and archaeologist, and presently Chair of the Department of History at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. He is formerly the Associate Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the Director of the Walter J. Ong, S.J. Center for Digital Humanities and the Director of the Center for International Studies at Saint Louis University. Finan is a specialist in the history and archaeology of medieval Ireland, and has appeared in a number of popular formats as well as an Emmy-nominated documentary, True Gaelic, concerning his archaeological excavations at the moated site near Lough Key, County Roscommon, Ireland, in 2016. He has appeared in local and international media spots. He is a licensed archaeologist in the Republic of Ireland, and is a Registered Professional Archaeologist in the United States. He is a member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2012. In 2019, he was elected to the Comite Permanente de Chateau Gaillard: International Castle Studies Colloque, representing Ireland.
Penelope Dransart is an anthropologist, archaeologist, and historian specialising in South American anthropology and the study of castles. Until 2016 she was a Reader at University of Wales Trinity Saint David. She is Honorary Reader at the University of Aberdeen. Dransart was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1998. She has written or edited several books, including Earth, Water, Fleece and Fabric: An Ethnography and Archaeology of Andean Camelid Herding.
Pamela Marshall is an archaeologist and historian specialising in the study of castles. Marshall was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2007. She worked at the University of Nottingham, teaching in the departments of archaeology and continuing education until her retirement. Marshall's research on castles has examined castles in England and France, as they had a shared castle culture, and is an authority on great towers. Between 2000 and 2014, Marshall was chair/secretary of the Castle Studies Group and is Comité Permanent of the Colloques Château Gaillard, a biannual conference for castellologists.
David James Cathcart King was a British historian, archaeologist, and school-teacher. While working as a teacher he perused his research in his free time, becoming "one of the leading authorities on the medieval castle". King was also president of the Cambrian Archaeological Association in 1976–77. A festschrift dedicated to King was published in 1987, titled Castles in Wales and the Marches.
Rachel Swallow is an archaeologist specialising in the study of landscapes and castles. She was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2018. Swallow studied at Birmingham Polytechnic and the University of Liverpool before completing a PhD at the University of Chester in 2015. She is visiting research fellow and guest lecturer at the University of Chester and honorary fellow at the University of Liverpool.