No History but biography: a biography of Hàìghlèàgh Winslade

Many historians now argue that they write biography rather then history. So here is more about me:

In Old English my name is spelt  Hiegleah Þslád and is pronounced Hayley Wines'lad. Hiegleah is Old English for a hay clearing or hay meadow. According to Richard Coates Professor of Linguistics at the University of the West of England, Winslade is a difficult name Win being a person's name and lad from the Old English gelad meaning difficult course possibly Win and a difficult water course i.e. a topographical reference. With the Old English spelling of  Þslád the  Þ is the rune for Wyn. My surname is found in the Domesday Book for Hampshire as there is a village to the south of Basingstoke called Winslade the A239 runs through it and one day I will get my photo taken standing behind the sign.

I am an archaeologist and historian. When I was 7 one of the teachers at my junior school Miss McKee invited her father Alexander McKee who had discovered the Mary Rose to come and give the school a talk about this and I was hooked. I took O'Level History when I was 17 in 1984 and achieved the top grade a B in the class I was 4% off an A as I forgot to include the July Days in the answer to the question about the Russian Revolution but I won the College examination prize for O'Level History for that year. This was a book of my choice and I choose Elizabeth I by Neville Williams in the Kings and Queens of England series edited by Lady Antonia Fraser. At this time it was my dream to research and write Tudor history books,

My degree studies started at King Alfred's College (now the University of Winchester) in 1988 where I began reading for a degree in History and Archaeology. I completed my degree by reading archaeology at Southampton in the 1990's graduating with a 2:2 in those days there was not the assistive technology  to help with writing assignments - having a physical or learning disability means that you have to work twice as hard as students who don't have a physical or learning disability.

My dissertation was on

" A Study of the Saxon Hundred of Ceptune c.850-1086. Concentrating on the settlement at Catherington".

After University I taught archaeology courses in the further education sector for several years. In the last 3 & 1/2 years I have had two RTAs both the fault of young male drivers  and I now have spinal and neck injuries.I used to be a volunteer adviser at my local Citizens Advice Bureau in East Hampshire but I had to give this up after my first RTA.

In 2007 I started researching the Hyde chapel at All Saints Church up the road in Catherington and have shown that it has a Terminus Ante Quem date of 1066 to the church this research is on going. In 2009 I started research on the Gage chapel at St Peter's Church in Firle, East Sussex.

Between 2009-2013 I completed a BA in History and Theology with Religions at the University of Chichester.  I was able to return to my love of Tudor History with a dissertation on "The Gage Family of Firle, East Sussex, c. 1503-1650. Prosopography, Politics, Religion and Recusancy" for which I was awarded 68%.

In September 2013 I will be commencing an MA in Medieval and Renaissance Culture in the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Culture at the University of Southampton part time over two years. I then plan to undertake a PhD part time whilst starting my career writing history books starting with my first book: "Firle a History"

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