In this thesis I consider the study of change. I present a critique of existing approaches to the study of change and time in a prehistoric context. I develop an approach that moves beyond explanations of change where change is the result of singular causation located in a single moment of time. I critically consider how change is understood in the work of key relational thinkers such as Latour, Bennett, Ingold and DeLanda, developing an understanding of change which stresses the interplay between continuously fluxing assemblages and episodes of dramatic change (phase transitions). The theoretical position established is applied to interpreting change during the Ronaldsway Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age on the Isle of Man in an evidence-led analysis of material culture, mortuary practices and transformation of place. I focus on axes of stone and bronze and use them as a means to explore the effects of changing technology. New use-wear analysis on the Early Bronze Age corpus of metalwork from the Isle of Man is presented as a means of exploring the impact of bronze as a new material. I consider burial practices from 3000-1500 cal BC supported by twelve new radiocarbon dates. I also address changing relations with earth, drawing together diverse evidence including Earthfast Jar practices, the construction of burial monuments and the settlement evidence from the period. A new narrative for the period emerges highlighting the strength of an approach that draws on relational thinking. This approach emphasises the role of non-human actants in producing both continuity and change. It establishes the role of specific actants in the changing assemblages of the Manx Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, illustrating how change emerges from the constant flux that is endemic within actants at every scale. Change is presented as complex, relational and multiple. It is traceable through careful consideration of gradual changes at multiple scales by considering the quivering hives of activity within every assemblage.

Rural young people have received scant attention in the existing historiography of youth, leisure and the countryside and this thesis redresses such neglect, by examining the leisure experiences of young workers in the rural locality of Lakeland, a region in the south-eastern corner of the Lake District, between 1930 and the early 1950s. The thesis challenges the urban emphases of existing historical studies of youth and focuses on a period which is also relatively overlooked in historical work, particularly in relation to the 1940s and early 1950s. It uses the leisure experiences of young countrymen and women across these years to explore the interplay between tradition and change, highlighting the extent to which young people’s leisure in the region was shaped by a lack of commercialism and a striking level of adult supervision. It identifies the complex ways in which young people in Lakeland mediated or even rejected the influence of popular culture and negotiated adult intervention in their leisure. It also reveals the central part that young people played in the maintenance of ‘traditional’ leisure activities, which has been overlooked and under-estimated, yet which played an important part in connecting young people to a strong sense of place identity throughout the period. The thesis uses oral history testimony to explore how locally born people described their engagement with the region’s leisure culture when young, to highlight how these experiences were shaped by a strong sense of tradition and an awareness of the Lakeland landscape. It is argued that such testimony is suggestive of a broader ‘moral geography’ of the countryside which not only helped to shape ideas of Lakeland and local leisure habits as healthy, tough and ‘authentic’, but which also excluded outsiders who did not conform to this image. This sense of insiders and outsiders was particularly pertinent in a region which was so popular with tourists; the presence of outsiders and their effect on young people’s leisure habits is an important theme, which is examined in relation to growing self-consciousness about how the region’s place identity was presented to external audiences. The thesis also explores how local communities in Lakeland responded to ‘modernizing’ attempts to introduce new leisure structures which were devised according to a national agenda, as in the case of the youth service. Overall, the thesis gives new insights into rural life and identity, whilst offering a broader commentary on the significance of youth and leisure within rural communities during a period of growing anxiety about the homogenizing effects of commercial leisure culture on national identity.

In the second half of the twentieth century, significant advances in pay, working conditions and labour organisation were achieved by dock workers who had historically comprised one of the most exploited, least powerful sectors of the British working-class. State-sponsored regulation of the industry ushered in a complete change in the system of employment, the dynamics of workplace bargaining and irrevocably altered the relationship between port workers and their employers. However, despite considerable research into different aspects of labour organisation, state regulation and the system of employment on the docks, very few studies have explored labour relations at a specific port in order to focus on local variation and the nature of local workplace relationships. This thesis has sought to redress this imbalance in the existing historiography by undertaking a detailed exploration of labour relations at the port of Liverpool between 1967 and 1989. The research offers an empirical analysis and interpretation of events and disputes at the port of Liverpool during this period. This time-frame is chosen because 1967 heralded state-sponsored total decasualisation of the industry, introducing an official shop steward movement and signifying a watershed for labour relations and the modernisation of Britain’s ports. 1989 witnessed the end of an era for the dock industry and those employed within. The abolition of the National Dock Labour Scheme after a decade of Conservative government ended the unique statutory protection dockers had enjoyed for many years. This thesis concludes that labour relations on the Liverpool waterfront between 1967 and 1989 were considerably more complex than previous industry-wide studies have suggested. While certain factors are inherent to the national dock industry, there is considerable variation in the organisational character and experiences of dock workers in different ports. Liverpool developed its own brand of labour relations that was historically shaped. Local idiosyncrasies are central to a proper evaluation of labour relations and workplace relationships at the port. After 1972, the growth of clerical organisation further complicated already-nuanced workplace relationships by introducing another participant to industrial bargaining. Locality is central to understanding the intricate and composite nature of modern industrial relations at Liverpool in the decades between 1967 and 1989.

Contemporary debate about what marriage is and who should be allowed to enter into it is often based in assumptions about ‘traditional’ historical marriage. The study of marriage in the Middle Ages is particularly relevant: this period saw the emergence of the establishment of many marriage patterns that exist today. Scholarly work on marriage in the Middle Ages has generally focused on the middle and lower classes. Where it has examined elite society, previous literature has often focused only on landed wealth and politics as motives for marriage. This thesis addresses this gap. By exploring how one aristocratic family created and experienced marriage across five generations, I provide an in-depth examination of elite marriage in the medieval period. To that end, I have focused on three major questions: why did the elite classes marry? What was marriage like and what defined a ‘successful’ marriage? What were marriage’s legacies, in the short and long term? The earldom and duchy of Lancaster provides a strong case study to use in answering these questions. As some of the most influential figures of their day, members of this family – both men and women – appear frequently in historical records. The duchy’s absorption of the crown following Henry IV’s accession in 1399 has meant that extant documentation in The National Archives is unusually rich. In addition to these records, I have analysed other evidence, including literature, chronicles and material evidence. I argue that in this family, marriage was a considerably more complicated than is usually appreciated. Motives for marriage extended beyond the acquisition of land or power. They included specific political ambitions, the need to reinforce a weak line of succession, the desire for security, and even love. Most couples had a decent personal relationship, and some developed deep affection for each other. What was perhaps more important, however, were the relationships – with in-laws, step-families, or rulers – that emerged as a result of marriage. These connections were not a mere by-product of marriage, but rather one of its most important functions. Marriages had important legacies. Memorialisation strategies can reflect the quality of a relationship in life, as well as a family’s needs after a spouse’s death. In the longer term, marriage facilitated the creation of networks or claims that could last for generations. This thesis adds new knowledge on the creation and experience of marriage for the elite classes of late medieval England, as well as the public and private lives of those in elite society. By shedding light on marriage’s past, I contribute to understandings of the present and future of this enduring and universal relationship.

Over the last two decades many in the archaeological community have developed a degree of scepticism and suspicion towards using genetics to study the past. My project aims to dispel some of these concerns, highlighting the inferences about demographic and social history which can be made from genetic data gathered from modern populations. Centred around the British-Irish Isles and in particular, the Isle of Man, this study investigates for the first time, differing demographic histories in the male and female gene-pools. The focus of this research is the 400 years of Norwegian rule in the Irish Sea region following the Viking visitations of 900CE, when the Isle of Man was an important centre in the politics of the Irish Sea kingdom. DNA samples were collected from male volunteers, followed by the extraction of high resolution mtDNA and Y chromosome data. Volunteers were enlisted on the basis of surnames taken from 16th-century documentation to ensure deep historical roots on the Island. The high quality genetic data generated for the Isle of Man not only gave greater distinguishing power for looking at closely related populations, but also allowed separate male and female population histories to be explored. Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) modelling was used to explore the demographic history of the Isle of Man and how the impact of the Norwegian diaspora differed for men and women, providing a powerful statistical and probabilistic approach to admixture analysis. Whilst drawing evidence from history, archaeology and incorporating genetic data to provide indications of where the Island draws its genetic influences from, this project provided a case study for how the fields of archaeology and genetics can be better integrated for the exploration of the past.

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In both the historiographies of Cumbria and empire respectively, there are numerous allusions to Cumbrians in the East Indies. However, the importance and implications of that encounter have never been systematically explored. This thesis enumerates well over four hundred middling and gentry Cumbrian men and women who travelled to and sojourned in the East Indies as well as a host of Cumbrians whose East Indies interests were operated from the British Isles. There were many more Cumbrians implicated in those East Indies ventures although they may not have been directly involved or sojourned there. For middling and gentry Cumbrian families, the East Indies presented a promise of success. This thesis explores their hopes and fears around ventures in the East Indies. It shows how gentry and middling families mobilised the resources necessary to pursue East Indies success and how East Indies sojourns were enmeshed with expressions of success in Cumbrian society. This thesis illuminates the connections between individuals, families, and place in local, national and global settings. Using the new flexibility and reach provided by the digital world, it incorporates and layers quantitative and structural analysis; thematic analysis around experience, sensibility and identity; and, biographical narratives that trace the contingent and complex trajectories of people’s lives. The Cumbrian encounter with the East Indies brings a new lens to historiographies beyond Cumbria’s regional history: the changing fortunes of middling ranks and gentry, the social and economic history of provincial life, and British imperial expansion. It underscores the importance of regional or provincial cases in understanding experiences usually treated as a nationally determined and driven by national imperatives. It highlights, too, how the pursuit of success by individuals and families has ramifications beyond themselves and their kin.

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This thesis considers a little-examined region of medieval Britain through the concept and significance of power and place applied to the architecture and landscapes of castles. Over the last thirty-five years, castle studies have shifted in their interpretations of the defensive, offensive and aesthetic landscape contexts of medieval fortified residences and have adopted a new line of research. It is now understood generally that, apart from occasional military activity, most castles were used less for military purposes and more for administration and display as the lords’ residences. No such study has been made of castles in medieval Cheshire, to critically evaluate and apply new approaches in castle studies to the Cheshire evidence. This thesis concerns the number, location and distribution of castles raised in medieval Cheshire — which included current areas of north-east Wales and Greater Manchester — under the quasi-independent earls of Chester and their tenants, c.1070–1237. The study is primarily one of landscape history and archaeology, which together span many disciplinary boundaries. It draws upon previously un-studied or under-studied documentary and cartographic sources, as well as new interpretations of archaeological features at and around castle sites. An original research approach is thus employed to revisit and reinterpret the changing social, political and historical frameworks of fortified élite residences in medieval Cheshire. Within the context of current debates on the historic landscape, in-depth exploration situates related castle case studies within their respective spatial and temporal environs.