Academic qualifications and fellowships
University of Birmingham 1974-78
B.A. (Hons.) First Class, Combined Subjects, History & Archaeology
University of Nottingham 1980-84
PhD (Archaeology) The archaeology of urban buildings and landscapes (1990)
University of Birmingham 1989-94
Leverhulme Research Fellow, School of Geography, University of Birmingham
Honorary Research Fellow of the School of Geography & Earth Sciences, University of Birmingham (1994-present)
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) (2009-present)
Professional qualifications
Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (MCIfA) since 1988;
(member of the CIFA’s Buildings Special Interest Group. Areas of Competence in excavation and recording/analysis of standing buildings)
Committees
Member of the Historic England Advisory Committee (HEAC) (2012-18)
Member of Historic England Urban Panel (2015-present)
Member of Council, Shropshire Archaeological & Historical Society (c.1990-present)
Current projects
Post-excavation and research for the National Trust on the early 19th-century summerhouse discovered in Attingham Park, summer 2018 (see blog 3)
Survey and research project forthcoming at Shrewsbury Castle, for Castle Studies Trust
Planning casework in Shropshire, and Shrewsbury town centre and suburbs
Currently researching
The archaeology of the burgage plot, for a forthcoming ALGAO seminar and an article in Urban Morphology. And rivers, and the historical use of canoes for a forthcoming book – Paddling into the Past.
Career summary
1985-1988: Project director for Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit, co-directing excavations at Shrewsbury Abbey and organising urban surveys in Shrewsbury, and urban assessments in the West Midlands.
1989-1994: Leverhulme Research Fellowship in the School of Geography, University of Birmingham, on an inter-disciplinary project examining the impact of Church institutions on the development of early medieval towns.
1995-2006: Archaeological consultant. Responsible for the English Heritage urban archaeological databases (UAD) and urban archaeological assessments (UAA) for Shrewsbury and Worcester. Contributions to conservation management plans at Shrewsbury Castle and Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust properties). Town-plan analysis of central Birmingham. Historic buildings assessments of farmyards around Shropshire. Excavations at Whittington Castle and elsewhere. Archaeological consultant to Shrewsbury Abbey church. Contributions on pre- and post-Conquest towns (published online) to the West Midlands Archaeological Research Framework.
2006-2014: Urban Archaeologist, Herefordshire Council. Principal projects included Hereford Urban Archaeological Database; Hereford historic townscape characterisation; Hereford urban archaeological deposit model; Hereford city defences conservation management plan; excavations at Eardisley Castle; market-town assessments of Ross, Kington and Leominster.
2014 – present: Archaeological consultant & contractor (see current projects). Editing work has now been completed on Houses of Hereford 1200-1700 and the Bristol Archaeological Assessment volumes, both submitted to Oxbow for publication in 2017-18
Publications
Books/monographs
1998: Shrewsbury Abbey – a medieval monastery, Shropshire Books
2002: (Editor/author): Shrewsbury Abbey: studies in the archaeology and history of an urban monastery, Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society monograph, no.2
2003: Shrewsbury: archaeological discoveries from a medieval town, Shropshire Books
2004: (with R A Holt): Urban Growth and the Medieval Church: Gloucester and Worcester, Ashgate Publishing
2010: Shrewsbury – an archaeological assessment of an English border town. Oxbow/English Heritage
2018: Baker, N, Hughes, P and Morriss, R K, The houses of Hereford, 1200-1700, Oxbow/Historic England
2018: (co-editor and contributor): Brett, J, (eds. Baker N and Jones, R), Bristol, an urban archaeological assessment, Oxbow/Historic England, 2017
Articles, and chapters in edited volumes
1980: ‘Churches, parishes, and early medieval topography’ and ‘The urban churches of Worcester – a survey’ in Carver M O H (ed.): Medieval Worcester Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society, 3rd series, 7, 1980, chapters 2 and 8
1980-81: ‘The west range of Ulverscroft Priory and its roof’, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, 56, 10-17
1981-2: ‘The gatehouse of Rushall Hall, Staffordshire: a survey and excavation’, Transactions of the South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society, 23, 79-88
1983: ‘Rigg’s Hall’ in Carver, M 0 H (ed), Two town houses in medieval Shrewsbury, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society, 61, 1983
1989: (with R Beesley, J B Lawson and R Maxwell): ‘The Talbot Chambers Site, Market Street, Shrewsbury’, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society 66, 63-78
1992: (with T R Slater): ‘Morphological regions in English medieval towns’, in Whitehand, J W R, and Larkham, P J, (eds.) Urban Landscapes, International Perspectives, Routledge
1992: (with H Dalwood, R A Holt, C F Mundy and G Taylor): ‘From Roman to medieval Worcester: development and planning in the Anglo-Saxon city’, Antiquity, 66, no.250, 65-74
1993: (with J B Lawson, R Maxwell, and J T Smith): ‘Further work on Pride Hill, Shrewsbury’ Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society 68, 1-64
1996: (with R A Holt): ‘The city of Worcester in the tenth century’, in Brooks, N P, and Cubitt, C (eds.), St Oswald of Worcester, life and influence, Leicester University Press
1996: ‘Medieval Shrewsbury’ and ‘Medieval Worcester’ in Crabtree, P J (ed.), Medieval Archaeology: an Encyclopædia, Garland Publishing Inc., New York
1998: (with R A Holt): ‘The origins of urban parish boundaries’, in Slater, T R, and Rosser, A G , (eds.) The Church in the medieval town, Ashgate Publishing, 209-235
1999: (with R A Holt): ‘Towards a geography of sexual encounter: prostitution in English medieval towns’, in Bevan, L, and Christodoulou, D, (eds.) Indecent Exposure: sexuality, society and the archaeological record, Cruithne Press, 201-215
2010: ‘Growth of the Borough’, chapter 3 of Pinches, L, Ledbury, people and parish before the Reformation. England’s Past for Everyone series, Phillimore
2014: (with R A Holt), ‘Shrewsbury c.700 to c.1200’, chapter 1 of the Victoria History of England, Shropshire, vol.5, part 1
Online publications
2010: A conservation management plan for Hereford City defences. Herefordshire Council (archaeology resources)
2010: A characterisation of the historic townscape of central Hereford. Herefordshire Council (archaeology resources)
Nigel Baker Archaeology 