17/02/2026
Congratulations to Michael. He keeps himself busy in retirement. As well as researching and writing articles he also edits the Journal for the North Craven Heritage Trust.
Michael’s article ‘Domestic medicine in the Yorkshire Dales (1650-1850)’, which appeared in last year’s Journal, has been chosen as the overall joint winner of the British Association for Local History Publications Awards 2026 in the ‘short article’ category.
This is a wonderful accolade for Michael both for this article but also for his editorship of the Journal and I couldn’t be more delighted for him. Just looking at the process to choose the winners is enough to demonstrate Michael’s achievement:-
‘Each year our Reviews Editor, Heather Falvey, selects eight short articles from among an estimated 250 which she receives annually in all the journals and newsletters received for listing in The Local Historian. The eight shortlisted articles are then read and assessed by a panel of four judges drawn from the local history world. Criteria for judginginclude originality and innovation in the topic; quality of research and writing; referencing and technical aspects of the presentation; and clarity of argument and explanation. The competition is therefore strong, and even to be shortlisted is aconsiderable achievement—to win, even more so.’
