David Butcher

A former Lowestoft secondary school teacher of English (1965-2002) and part-time tutor for the University of East Anglia's Continuing Studies Dept. on its Certificate in English Local History Course (1990-2004). I have written and published widely on the north-easternmost corner of Suffolk, taking a particular interest in the history and development of the town of Lowestoft from Anglo-Saxon times onwards - especially in terms of the local coastal topography and the way that this has influenced both economy and society. My approach is a multi-source one, where surface geology, the maritime environment, documentary material of different kinds, archaeological evidence and the built environment are all used to create as intricate a picture of the past as it is possible to achieve.

I also have a long-standing interest in the recording and use of oral history material relating to the Lowestoft fishing industry c. 1910-60 and have used this material in five of my published works. The tape-recordings themselves (101 hours, collected 1976-83) now form part of the Suffolk County Oral History Collection - together with a handwritten, annotated transcript of each recording. I still retain a photocopied set of the transcripts for my own reference and use, while another is lodged at the University of Freiburg, in Germany, where it forms part of a bank of material used in doctoral studies into UK regional dialects.

In addition to the books listed on this site, I have also published five works dedicated to the activities of the Lowestoft Heritage Workshop Centre (lowestoftheritage.org): "The Lowestoft Manor Roll of 1618" (2003), "The Island of Lothingland: a Domesday and Hundred Roll Handbook" (2012), "The Half-hundred of Mutford: Domesday Analysis and Medieval Exploration" (2013), the "The Town of Lowestoft, c. 1720-25: People and Property in a Pre-industrial Coastal Community" (2019) and "Lowestoft Then and Now - 1618 & 2021" (2021). Finally, dating from 2008, the North Atlantic Fisheries History Association (based at Hull University) published "Rigged for River and Sea" - a compendium of fishing-related terminology in English and Latin found in documentation between c. 1200 & 1800.