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Dr Leona Watson

Associate Professor

Department: Humanities

Her doctoral research at Durham University investigated the regulation of key bio-physical flows of water, manure, blood, urine and industrial waste products in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century British townscapes, revealing remarkably well organised and effective systems of environmental regulation.

At the universities of York and Bristol, she worked on two AHRC-funded post-doctoral, environmental history research projects: 1) ‘Local Places, Global Processes’, on twentieth-century Kielder, in the North Tyne valley in Northumberland, revealing how local people’s economic, social and cultural lives were reshaped by successive environmental changes; and 2) ‘The Power and the Water’, on the environmental history of north-east England’s River Tyne (1529-2015), reconnecting the sub-themes of the river’s fish life, sanitation, pollution, riparian industry, riverine knowledge, regeneration, conservation, recreation and environmental governance. In 2015-16, she worked on an EPSRC-funded water sustainability project with civil engineers and social scientists, ‘TWENTY65’.

Leona is Co-Investigator on a three-year, AHRC-funded project, ‘Past Floods Matter’, working on historic flood mitigation and the Internal Drainage Boards (1770s to present) and she is also researching the environmental history of English brewing as a biotechnology, 1603-1830.

Campus Address

Rm 323, Lipman Building
City Campus
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE1 8ST

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Interdisciplinary Working and Environmental History, Watson, L. 1 Nov 2024, In: Environment and History
  • 'The Land is in Good Heart': Flood Mitigation and the Drainage Boards in Cumbria, 1844-1985, Skelton, L. 15 Jun 2020, In: Global Environment
  • Material Matters: Improving Berwick upon Tweed's Urban Environment, 1551-1603, Skelton, L. 19 Jan 2018, Economy and Culture in North-East England, 1500-1800 , Woodbridge, Boydell & Brewer
  • Mastering North-East England's 'River of Tine': efforts to manage a river's flow, functions and form, 1529-c.1800, Skelton, L. Mar 2017, Governing the Environment in the Early Modern World, Abingdon, Taylor & Francis
  • Regulating the Environment of the River Tyne’s Estuary, 1530-1800, Skelton, L. 1 Dec 2017, Environmental History in the Making, Switzerland, Springer
  • Stories of Life, Work and Nature Before and After the Clean-up of North-East England’s River Tyne, 1940–2015, Skelton, L. 1 Dec 2017, Telling Environmental Histories, Basingstoke, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan
  • Tyne after Tyne: An Environmental History of a River’s Battle for Protection 1529–2015, Skelton, L. 1 Mar 2017
  • Environmental Change: A Local Perspective on Global Processes, Skelton, L., Moon, D. 31 Mar 2016, Local Places, Global Processes, Oxford, Oxbow Books
  • The Kielder Oral History Project: Three Case Studies, Skelton, L. 31 Mar 2016, Local Places, Global Processes, Oxford, Oxbow Books
  • Sanitation in Urban Britain, 1560–1700, Skelton, L. 21 Dec 2015

  • Helen Leighton-Rose From Kirk to Secular Committee: The Impact of Changing Administration of Immoral Crime, Sexual Activity and Poverty upon South Eastern Scottish Borders Women’s Lives, 1707-1870. Start Date: 01/01/2020
  • Laura Littlefair Recontextualising the Deindustrialised Railway Town: Communities, Memory, Gender, and Identity in Shildon, 1984-2004 Start Date: 17/10/2024
  • Georgia Wade Our Calder History: Our Calder Future. Start Date: 01/10/2024
  • Adam Dixon The Impact of Transport Infrastructure on Twentieth Century Tyneside Start Date: 01/04/2023

  • History PhD June 01 2013
  • History MA January 01 2009
  • BA (Hons) June 30 2007
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy FHEA 2018
  • Fellow of the Royal Historical Society FRHistS 2017


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