After finishing his undergraduate degree in Archaeology at the University of Southampton, Ian undertook a PhD at the University of Manchester. Following a long-standing interest, the subject of this research was the representation of Islam in British museums. Ian started teaching archaeology while he was at Manchester as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. He also ran a range of Adult Education courses in Archaeology at the University of Derby College Buxton. Ian was a team member of the Medieval & Ottoman Building Survey, a long-term project supported by the British Academy, recording buildings in the West Bank.
Ian has also worked on Neolithic sites. Between 1999-2002, he worked on the Dunragit Project. This excavation was of a substantial palisaded and pit-defined cursus monument near Stranraer. Between 2004 and 2009 he was a supervisor on the Stonehenge Riverside Project, working with Prof Julian Thomas and Prof Mike Parker Pearson on a number of sites within the Stonehenge landscape. After this, he worked a further 3 years with Prof Thomas on sites in Herefordshire.
From 2015-2017, Ian directed excavations for Peeling Back the Layers: a Community Archaeology Project at Under Whitle. He project-managed and directed excavations at a project based in Radbourne Derbyshire during 2018 – 2020 searching for the Old Hall and, after some delay due to Covid, has finally been working with the Tudor Farming Interpretation Group as project manager and archaeologist on Digging Deeper: The Origins of Whitle. Whilst this project has essentially ended, a further grant has enabled Ian and the group to carry out further research in ancient pollen found during this project. This is proving to be very exciting and final results should be available in 2024!
