Conference: The Land-Agent - Past, Present and Future

Organiser: Professor Steven King, School of Historical Studies, University of Leicester

1-2 July 2013, Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire, UK

 

The Land-Agent: Past, Present and Future

This two day conference, held in the spectacular setting of Lamport Hall, will examine the economic, social, political and cultural role of the land agent past, present and future. Day one will consider the historical dimensions of the role, with papers including:

• Carol Beardmore, ‘The rural community through the eyes of the land agent on the Marquis of Anglesey’s Dorset and Somerset estate’
• Caroline Dakers, ‘Land agents in fact and fiction: James Coombs and James Morrison/Caleb Garth in Middlemarch’.
• Richard Gaunt, ‘The professional and the personal: A nineteenth century land agent’s story’.
• Briony McDonagh, ‘Female owners and their land agents in the eighteenth century’.
• Ciarán Reilly, ‘The Irish land agent and the ‘realities of life’ in the mid-nineteenth century’.
• Phillip Riden, ‘Administering the Cavendish and Chatsworth estates in the seventeenth century’.
• Sarah Webster, ‘Kent, Claridge and Pearce and the third Earl of Egremont (1751-1837): The professionalisation of land agents in this period c.1770 - c.1840’

 

Day two of the conference will focus on the current and future role of the land agent, exploring the economic, technological, environmental, organisation and jurisdictional challenges of estate management in the modern era. Papers include:

• Davina Fillingham (Stephenson & Son, York), ‘Precision Farming Technology for Rural Land Management’.
• Helen Small (The Hartwell Estate), ‘Tourism, greening and timber: Thinking about the future of a landed estate’.
• Nick Morris (Chief Executive, Stowe House Preservation Trust), ‘The Land Agent: Past, Present and Future. A proposal from the Stowe Estate’.
• Stephen Warton (Elton Estate), ‘Land Agents as “Green guardians”: A future’.

 

The conference team is based in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Leicester. Please contact by email, Carol Beardmore or Geoff Monks. They will be able to answer any questions you have about arrangements and timings over the two-days. The booking fee is £15 per day and includes morning and afternoon tea and lunch. Bookings can be made via shop@le. For details on how to get to Lamport Hall please visit their website www.lamporthall.co.uk.

Source: aghistorysociety.org / www2.le.ac.uk