- Media work: BBC1 (Countryfile); BBC4; BBC Radio 3; BBC Radio 4; BBC World Service; BBC South; Channel 4;
- Consultant for the Museum of English Rural Life’s major redesign project, ‘Our Country Lives’
- Principal Investigator/academic lead for Family and Community Historical Research Society Allotments Project
Dr Jeremy Burchardt

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+44 (0) 118 378 7735
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Associate Professor
Areas of interest
As a rural historian, I have become increasingly fascinated in the last few years by the different ways we experience landscape – how it can subtly interfuse itself with sometimes quite profound aspects of our being, and the changes and continuities in this across time and space. Researching this elusive subject is challenging, especially in a historical context, but that makes it all the more intriguing and rewarding. I hope something of this comes across in my recent book, Lifescapes: The Experience of Landscape in England, 1870-1960 (CUP, 2023). I’ve also worked recently on children’s experiences of landscape (especially children’s place-naming practices), representations of the rural in children’s literature, the English rural community movement, village halls, and the history of allotments. All my research is concerned with the significance of rural land and landscapes in people’s lives, the relationship between experiences and representations of the countryside and the cultural history of ruralist ideologies such as that underpinning the rural community movement.
Postgraduate supervision
Current supervision
I am currently supervising PhDs on:
- Charles Paget Wade, Snowshill and heritage collecting in the early twentieth century (Charlotte Fiell)
- Domestic service in rural Berkshire (Peter Jolly)
- Land agents and great aristocratic estates: George North and Stratfield Saye (Gareth Jones)
- Railways and economic development in Berkshire (Richard Marks)
- Friendship networks and agricultural improvement in early nineteenth-century England (Hilary Matthews)
- Architects, builders, clients and the development of modern Reading (Michael Saunders)
Postgraduate research teaching/skills
- Landscape history
- Rural history (especially modern Britain)
Teaching
Undergraduate
- Year 1: Revolutionary Cities
- Year 2: Utopia: The Quest for a Perfect World
- Year 3: The Romantic Revolution: Culture, Environment and Society in England, 1790-1900
- Year 3: Landscapes of the Mind: Romanticism and the Rural Idyll, 1750-1939
Postgraduate MA (postgraduate taught)
- The Twentieth-century Countryside: Agriculture, Environment and People
- Dissertation supervision
Research centres and groups
- Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
- Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Principal Investigator of the Arts & Humanities Research Council research network ‘Changing Landscapes, Changing Lives’
Awards and honours
- Awarded Land Use Decisions programme consultancy by the Royal Society, 2020
- P.H. Ditchfield Fellowship at the Museum of English Rural Life (2019-20)
- Invited to speak at international conferences at Harvard, Leuven, Wageningen and Valenciennes; also Oxford, London (Institute of Historical Research), Glasgow, Leicester and Sussex
- External examiner for Oxford University Department of Continuing Education
- Peer reviewer for Arts & Humanities Research Council and for American Academy in Berlin
- Awarded Undergraduate Research Opportunities Placements (UROP) in 2012-13 and 2020-21
- Nominated for Reading University Student Union Excellence Awards (for teaching/as a personal tutor) in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021
Websites/blogs
‘Changing Landscapes, Changing Lives’ research network blog https://research.reading.ac.uk/changing-landscapes/naming-places-how-children-make-the-world-their-own/
Publications
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Burchardt, J.
ORCID: 0000-0001-9483-1494 (2023) In-between landscapes. In: Ross, L. , Navickas, K. , Anderson, B. , Kelly, M. , (eds.) New Lives, New Landscapes Revisited. New Lives, New Landscapes Revisited ISBN: 9780197267455
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Burchardt, J.
ORCID: 0000-0001-9483-1494 (2023) Lifescapes: the experience of landscape in Britain, 1870-1960. Modern British Histories Cambridge University Press , Cambridge. pp 516. ISBN: 9781009199872 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781009199858
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Burchardt, J.
ORCID: 0000-0001-9483-1494 (2022) Farm diaries, 1770–1990. In: Bullard, P. , (eds.) A History of English Georgic Writing. Cambridge University Press , Cambridge. pp. 79-98. ISBN: 9781316519875 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781009019507.005
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Burchardt, J.
ORCID: 0000-0001-9483-1494 , Doak, J. , Parker, G. (2020) Review of key trends and issues in UK rural land use. University of Reading , Reading.
- Burchardt, J. (2020) Ladybird landscape; or, what to look for in the 'What to Look For' books. Rural History , 31 (1). pp. 79-95. ISSN: 1474-0656 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S095679331900030X
- Burchardt, J. (2020) Far away and close to home: Children’s toponyms and imagined geographies, c. 1870 – c. 1950. Journal of Historical Geography , 69 pp. 68-79. ISSN: 0305-7488 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2020.05.005
- Burchardt, J. (2017) The rural idyll: a critique. In: Elson, V. and Shirley, R. , (eds.) Creating the Countryside: The Rural Idyll Past and Present. Paul Holberton Publishing , London. pp. 64-73. ISBN: 9781911300106
- Bignell, J. and Burchardt, J. (2017) Agents, beneficiaries and victims: picturing people on the land. In: Haigron, D. , (eds.) The English Countryside: Representations, Identities, Mutations. Palgrave Macmillan , Basingstoke. pp. 61-82. ISBN: 9783319532721 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53273-8
- Brassley, P. , Burchardt, J. , Sayer, K. (2016) Conclusion: electricity, rurality and modernity. In: Brassley, P. , Burchardt, J. , Sayer, K. , (eds.) Transforming the Countryside: The Electrification of Rural Britain. Routledge , Abingdon, UK. ISBN: 9781472441270
- Brassley, P. , Burchardt, J. , Sayer, K. (2016) Introduction. Transforming the Countryside: The Electrification of Rural Britain. Rural Worlds: Economic, Social and Cultural Histories of Agricultures and Rural Societies Routledge , Abingdon, UK. ISBN: 9781472441270
- Brassley, P. , Burchardt, J. , Sayer, K. , eds. (2016) Transforming the countryside: the electrification of rural Britain. Rural Worlds: Economic, Social and Cultural Histories of Agricultures and Rural Societies Routledge , Abingdon, UK. pp 252. ISBN: 9781472441270
- Burchardt, J. (2012) State and society in the English countryside: the rural community movement 1918-1939. Rural History , 23 (1). pp. 81-106. ISSN: 1474-0656 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0956793311000161
- Burchardt, J. (2012) Historicizing counterurbanization: in-migration and the reconstruction of rural space in Berkshire (UK), 1901-51. Journal of Historical Geography , 38 (2). pp. 155-166. ISSN: 0305-7488 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2011.08.017
- Burchardt, J. (2011) Rethinking the rural idyll: the English rural community movement 1913-26. Cultural and Social History , 8 (1). pp. 73-94. ISSN: 1478-0046 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.2752/147800411X12858412044438
- Burchardt, J. (2010) The FACHRS allotments project: summary and conclusions. In: Burchardt, J. and Cooper, J. , (eds.) Breaking new ground: nineteenth century allotments from local sources. FACHRS pp. 9-54. ISBN: 9780954818012
- Burchardt, J. (2010) Allotments historical data collection: Burchardt 2002 allotments database. FACHRS
- Burchardt, J. and Cooper, J. (2010) Breaking new ground: nineteenth century allotments from local sources. FACHRS Publications , Milton Keynes. ISBN: 9780954818012
- Burchardt, J. and Cooper, J. (2010) Introduction: context and aims of the FACHRS allotments project. In: Burchardt, J. and Cooper, J. , (eds.) Breaking new ground: nineteenth century allotments from local sources. FACHRS Publications pp. 1-8. ISBN: 9780954818012
- Burchardt, J. and Conford, P. (2008) Introduction. In: Burchardt, J. and Conford, P. , (eds.) The contested countryside: rural politics and land controversy in modern Britain. I B Tauris pp. 1 - 18. ISBN: 9781845117153
- Burchardt, J. and Conford, P. (2008) The contested countryside: rural politics and land controversy in Modern Britain. International Library of Political Studies I B Tauris pp 288. ISBN: 9781845117153
- Burchardt, J. (2008) Review: Clare V. J. Griffiths, Labour and the countryside: the politics of rural Britain 1918-1939. Twentieth Century British History , 19 (1). pp. 3. ISSN: 1477-4674 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/tcbh/hwm029
- Burchardt, J. (2007) Agricultural history, rural history or countryside history?. Historical Journal , 50 (2). pp. 465-481. ISSN: 1469-5103 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X07006152
- Burchardt, J. (2006) 'A new rural civilization': village halls, community and citizenship in the 1920s. In: Brassley, . , Burchardt, J. , Thompson, . , (eds.) The English countryside between the wars: regeneration or decline?. Boydell and Brewer , Woodbridge, UK. pp. 26-35. ISBN: 9781843832645
- Brassley, P. , Burchardt, J. , Thompson, L. , eds. (2006) The English countryside between the wars: regeneration or decline?. Boydell and Brewer , Woodbridge, UK. ISBN: 9781843832645
- Burchardt, J. (2005) [Review of] Donna Landry, 'The invention of the countryside. Hunting, walking and ecology in English literature, 1671–1831', Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2001. Rural History , 16 (1). pp. 133-135. ISSN: 1474-0656 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0956793305221374
- Burchardt, J. (2004) Static countryside, dynamic agriculture: the contradictions of modernity in rural England, 1950-2000. In: Roudaut, E. , (eds.) The British countryside: confrontation or (con)fusion?. Université de Valenciennes , France. pp. 53-79.
- Burchardt, J. (2003) Une campagne statique, une agriculture dynamique: les contradictions de la modernite dans L'Angleterre rurale 1945-2002 [Static countryside, dynamic agriculture: the contradictions of modernity in rural England 1950-2000]. In: Rodaut, E. , (eds.) Villes et campagnes britanniques. Confrontation ou (con)fusion?. Recherches valenciennoises Presses universitaires de Valenciennes (15). , Valenciennes. pp. 115-133. ISBN: 9782905725561