This project will edit and make available online the four books of 'my life' that Alice Wandesford Thornton bequeathed to her daughter in 1707. Thornton was the daughter of a former Lord Deputy of Ireland and she married a member of the lesser gentry in North Yorkshire. Three of the manuscript books were edited in 1875, for the Surtees Society (dedicated to the history of north east England), and have been read widely for their insight into life in seventeenth-century England with its civil war, plague and high infant mortality rate. However, while Thornton's manuscripts retrace the events of her life multiple times, the 1875 edition created a single narrative from the three original volumes by placing the entries in chronological order. In so doing Thornton's original arrangement of her life story was obscured and some significant material was omitted. The whereabouts of the manuscripts was unknown for many decades. In 2009 two of the texts, the first and third books of her life, were acquired by the British Library but the second volume remained untraced. In 2019 it was traced to Durham Cathedral Library by Cordelia Beattie, who had also recently located a smaller 'Book of Remembrances,' also in Thornton's hand, in a chest in a terraced house in Shropshire. Now that all the original manuscripts have been located, we are finally able to 'unedit' the Victorian edition and to ask both how this alters critical understanding of Thornton's life and texts in particular and what implications this has for the broader fields of early modern history and life-writing. While by no means the only woman to write her life in early modern England, Thornton's books offer an extraordinarily rich example of how a woman below the ranks of the nobility did so. The fact that she produced more than one version of it makes her even more exceptional. Although it has long been established that many male diarists (such as Pepys) curated their texts, such evidence does not appear to survive for early modern women writers. This project will edit all four books and make them freely available on the web in a Digital Scholarly Edition (DSE) so as to reach the widest possible audience; the importance of this form of access has been highlighted at a time in which travel and library access has been curtailed by a global pandemic. The digital aspect of this project means that, as well as making each text available in its entirety, searches for key people, places and events are enabled, which will make it useful to those interested in an array of historical issues ranging from healthcare to the British civil wars. The encoding means that we will be able to show how the content changes between the different manuscript books and how Thornton drew on other sources, especially the Bible, to write about her life. Collectively, these factors will enable us to better appreciate Thornton as an early modern writer. The DSE will also contribute to existing debates on editorial methods within the Digital Humanities and allow future scholars to develop alternative approaches to our dataset. The topics at issue are still of keen interest today and we aim to prompt critical reflection on present-day ideas of gender, religion, science and place and their relationship with the distant past through a series of public lectures at Durham Cathedral, talks to local history groups and blog posts on our website. For example, the writings of Alice Thornton, mother-in-law of a former Dean of the Cathedral, can encourage reflection on the longer history of women's role in the Church of England. Our project partner, Durham Cathedral, has also offered to host an exhibition of Thornton related manuscripts and a one-woman play in which Thornton's words are brought to life for a modern audience. In sum, the project seeks to rescue Alice Thornton from the nineteenth-century prism through which she has long been viewed and re-present her for a twenty-first century audience.

Hensley Henson (1863-1947), Bishop of Durham, 1920-39, was a famously trenchant public moralist, and his unpublished journals are masterpieces of commentary and opinion - indeed, one of the greatest of English diaries. Research on Henson and his journals will make a large contribution to the political, intellectual, and ecclesiastical history of Britain during the early 20th century. For the most part, these historical sub-disciplines exist in relative isolation from one other, hindering deeper understanding of important elements in modern Britain. Henson's journals offer a unique means to overcome these limitations. He was a leading controversialist not only on religious and ecclesiastical issues - he was the first bishop to advocate disestablishment of the Church of England - but across wide areas of social, political, industrial, moral and even medical debate. He fulfilled this role as a prolific preacher, speaker in the House of Lords, author, and contributor to newspapers. So far no systematic use has been made of the journals, because of the neglect of crucial modern intersections between politics, thought, and organised religion. The journals reveal the fluid boundaries between political and religious institutions, and the dependence of these institutions on a common set of ideas about the state, a national church, the free churches, nationhood, and community. Following a pilot project during 2014-15 funded by Durham University, the research will create a digital scholarly edition of two-thirds of the journals, the 63 volumes from 1900 to 1939 when Henson was most prominent as a public moralist and as a commentator on the great events and great figures of these turbulent years. The journals provide exceptional insight not just into all aspects of the Church (institutional, episcopal and pastoral), but also national and regional politics; social issues concerning the metropolitan elite at one extreme and the Durham coalfields at another; social and religious thought and literary life; and international affairs. The research potential of the journals will be demonstrated in scholarly articles that cut across these concerns. The digital edition will enable Henson's literary gifts and unique insights into his age to be enjoyed by a wide readership. The questions that will guide the research include the following. How far has secularisation in British public life been affected by shifts of power between institutions, and by changes in public attitudes towards religion? What were the implications for Church-State relations of the growth of democracy during the early 20th century? Which voices, lay and clerical, were most prominent in the debates about the place of religion in national life? How effectively did leading figures within the Church engage with public, political, and intellectual opinion on issues of public policy? What authority - cultural, moral, spiritual, and political - did the Church command, both locally and nationally? What contribution did the Church make to shaping English and British national identity, both in partnership with and in opposition to other churches in the UK? To what extent were alliances and conflicts within the Church shaped by wider networks of influence in public life? The research has many benefits for scholarship in British history, political thought, life-writing, religious studies, and literary history. It will generate new perspectives on the secularisation of British society during the 20th century, and the effectiveness of the Church in countering it. The subtleties of Henson's individualism and Unionism will enhance understanding of Conservative political thought. The journals will bring new insights on the modern relationship between clergyman and parish, dean and chapter, bishop and diocese, and changing styles of preaching. They also contain a wealth of biblical and literary discussion of value to literary historians. The edition will prove of enduring importance.

'Pilgrimage and England's cathedrals' employs a ground-breaking combination of interdisciplinary perspectives and methodologies to identify and analyse the core dynamics of pilgrimage and sacred sites in England from the 11th to 21st centuries, to assess the growing significance of English cathedrals as sacred/heritage sites today, and to inform management of/public engagement with these iconic buildings. Set against the background of the worldwide growth of pilgrimage and the increasing importance of sacred sites, the project's innovative approaches and timely research agenda also contribute substantially to defining and establishing the emerging field of Pilgrimage Studies. At the heart of this project is a new, wide-ranging analysis of the meaning and breadth of 'pilgrimage' and the role of sacred places past and present. Why did pilgrimage matter in the past and why does it still matter today? In exploring these issues, the project focuses attention on the role of cathedrals: places where, uniquely, national and local history and identity, material culture and traditional and emerging religious practice can be encountered together. Pilgrimage was central to the development and status of English cathedrals in the Middle Ages and although most shrines were destroyed at the Reformation, many of the great churches and monasteries which housed them remain as cathedrals today, literally shaped by their pilgrim past and retaining a strong pilgrimage legacy. Anglican cathedrals are increasingly refocusing on and reinstating shrines, reflecting an international multi-faith phenomenon in which an estimated 200 million people across the world engage in pilgrimage and religious tourism annually. Cathedrals in England are the group of sacred sites visited by the largest, most diverse group of people. A recent report reveals that 27% of adults resident in England visited an Anglican cathedral at least once in the previous year (THEOS, 2012). Moreover, over 40% of those visitors came from faith traditions other than Christianity or had no religious affiliation. This suggests that cathedrals are seen as shaped by, but transcending, Christianity, offering unique access to the 'spiritual' within the context of history, heritage and culture, and providing meaningful spaces for people of all faiths and none. These developments demand fuller, rigorous, multi-disciplinary investigation so that the implications for cathedrals, visitors and communities can be explored in detail. The project uses 4 cathedrals, Canterbury, York, Durham and Westminster (chosen to represent a range of historical, social, geographical, cultural and denominational settings, and varying policies on charging for entry) as historical and contemporary case studies. Research methods include analysis of architectural and visual material, archives and contemporary documents. Interviews, photo/audio-diaries, and participant observation will be employed to gather and examine the experiences and views of cathedral staff, volunteers, pilgrims, tourists and local residents (of all faiths or none). English cathedrals face multiple challenges as they seek to balance meeting the needs of congregations and pilgrims with remaining accessible to wider communities and tourists, and funding the maintenance of their historic buildings. This project provides insight into the historical and contemporary significance and use of spaces in and around cathedrals and analyses the specific connections between spiritual practice, cultural and historic interest, and individual, local and national senses of belonging. Outputs will include books, journal articles, conferences, a website, and an interactive animated visualization of medieval pilgrim experience. Findings will inform a range of academic disciplines, enhance visitor provision, tourism strategies and heritage management in English cathedrals and other sites, and provide resources for use by schools and the wider public.

'Records of Early English Drama North-East' (REED-NE) is part of a massive international project to assemble a complete record of surviving sources for medieval and early modern performance in Britain. REED volumes are to scholars in literature and theatre what Pevsner is to architects and art historians. REED's main office at the University of Toronto coordinates a team of researchers who trawl Britain's archives by region and edit their findings to an internationally recognized scholarly standard. The volumes which have already appeared have revolutionized our understanding of British performance history, replacing a view based largely on conjecture with one derived from detailed factual information about performers and the social and financial organisation of performance. REED volumes have redressed the London-centric imbalance of research obsessed by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and drawn attention to the many forms of anonymous performance in regions which have often been unjustly seen as 'marginal'. REED-NE, the latest stage in the series, will find and edit all records pertaining to drama, music and ceremonial in England's North-East, from the earliest sources (around 9th century) to 1642. REED-NE will cover Yorkshire (excluding the city of York, whose records have already appeared), Durham and Northumberland, in a collection of five or more volumes published by Boydell. To date, discoveries include: 1. A medieval sequence of liturgy and drama about the Sacrament which linked the lay community with their ecclesiastical city governors (Durham). 2. Child drama and misrule ceremonies (Boy Bishops and Lords of Misrule from Durham and West Yorkshire). 3. The earliest known evidence for three types of folk drama: the Stag Ceremony (before 1280, abolished 1315); the Plough Ceremony (from 1378); and the Man/Woman performer (1433-4) (all Durham). 4. New evidence relating to mystery cycles in at least four cities (Beverley, Doncaster, Durham and Newcastle). This will reduce the reliance of scholars on the probably untypical cycles from York and Chester. 5. A major stand-alone biblical play (Hull's 'Noah'). 6. Rare evidence for a Paternoster play (Beverley). 7. Performance traditions in noble households, including the Percies (Northumberland), the Ingrams, Talbots and Wentworths (West Yorkshire), and in the houses of lesser gentry in all North-Eastern counties. 8. An important body of information concerning illegal recusant drama in North Yorkshire. This will transform the historical understanding of the polemic use of drama by Catholics in provincial England. 9. A wealth of evidence about town waits, travelling performers, and patrons; we hope to discover and map performance circuits and locations from at least the later Middle Ages onwards. The REED-NE volumes will be accompanied by a Companion volume discussing the historical and cultural significance of our findings. Our findings will also be linked to an interactive map of provincial England on the REED Patrons and Performances website at Toronto. Geo-coding is only now being adopted for literary projects. Visualising research data with GIS mapping will offer a new perspective on historical performance in England and contribute to the advancement of the Spatial Humanities. A summer festival in Durham in 2016 will showcase our research to academics and the wider public with a conference and an exhibition of objects and manuscripts pertaining to religious and secular drama at Durham's World Heritage Site. Based on our collected records, we will stage medieval and Renaissance repertoire at Durham Castle and the Cathedral. For the first time since the 9th century, the Lindisfarne 'Harrowing of Hell' - probably Britain's oldest surviving drama - will be performed. All events will be freely accessible. We expect our work to have a major impact, on our discipline worldwide, and also on regional communities and their awareness of their heritage.

This study will explore how volunteers and volunteer managers negotiate moves out of a particular volunteering role and the impact that this can have in both the lives of older volunteers (aged 65+) and volunteer managers. People engage in different forms of civic participation (including volunteering) across the course of their lives, often in response to other lifecourse transitions which affect the time and resources available to them. While the patterns of people's civic participation have been studied, the impact of moving on from a volunteering role and the factors which shape the decision to move on have not. Civic participation is seen as an important aspect of successful ageing. There are different forms of civic participation, volunteering amongst them. Volunteers play an important role in delivering health, social and cultural services across the UK. Over-65s are proportionally the largest age-group of volunteers in Great Britain. However, many people in their mid-70s cease volunteering for a variety of age-related reasons though they may be moving onto other forms of civic participation. Volunteering contributes to people's wellbeing and often provides a valued source of meaning and identity in later life. A small-scale study in the UK, led by the PI for this project, suggested that leaving volunteering can be experienced as a form of loss which has the potential to undermine the benefits accrued from volunteering. This is particularly the case when people feel that personal or contextual factors are obliging them to stop even though they do not wish to. Furthermore, the study found that managing the cessation of volunteers created personal and professional challenges for volunteer managers which existing policies did not adequately address but the ways in which volunteers and volunteer managers handle this move out of volunteering can alter the impact of the move for both groups. Thus there is a need for evidence-based professional guidelines in this area. The proposed project will focus on older volunteers in cultural heritage organisations. The project will explore volunteers experience of moving out of volunteering and will develop a rich understanding of their experience and how it relates to the wider context of their lives. The project will also explore the organisational context and practices which shape this move. We will work with volunteers and ex-volunteers to understand how moving out of volunteering impacted on their wellbeing in the longer term. We will work with 8 case study organisations that capture the breadth of volunteer-involving heritage organisations in the UK. We will interview volunteers, ex-volunteers and staff. We will then carry out a national survey of volunteer managers across multiple sectors in the UK. This will enable us to test the findings from the case studies against the wider population of volunteer managers and establish the transferability of the findings to sectors beyond cultural heritage. We will use the findings of our work as the starting point for reflective conversation with our project partners with the aim of co-creating a toolkit of containing a repertoire of agreed good practice responses to commonly identified situations. We will share this will volunteer-involving organisations and agencies that work with older people. The project will provide a rich understanding of the experiences of older volunteers, and the staff managing them, as they move out of one form of civic participation (and potentially into another). As a group, older volunteers are worth studying in their own right but the insights from this group will be relevant to other groups of people who are moving between different forms of civic participation. The learning from this study will also inform new volunteer management practices to improve volunteers' and volunteer managers' experiences across multiple volunteer-involving sectors in the UK and internationally.