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About Us


Sticks Research Agency was founded in 2000 by Dr Nick Barratt and incorporated in 2007. We pride ourselves on our expertise in historical research and heritage consultancy, and like to share our passion and enthusiasm whether we’re working with private clients, institutions or media companies.

Our approach to service is built on several key values and principles:


  • • A professional approach to our research that is defined by expertise, attention to detail and thoroughness.
  • • A collaborative approach when shaping the terms of a commission, with realistic advice and guidance about what’s possible so that we don’t waste your time and money.
  • • A tailored approach to producing reports, printed books and other outputs so that you get a high-quality product that you’ll want to tell others about.
  • • A clear and transparent pricing policy, with flexible payment terms to spread the cost of a commission by working in agreed blocks of time.

Nick Barratt

Dr Nick Barratt

Director



Dr Nick Barratt is an author, broadcaster and historian best known for his work on BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are.
He is medieval historian, obtaining his PhD in 1996 from Kings College London for his thesis on thirteenth century state finance and fiscal history, and was awarded a teaching fellowship at the University of Dundee for a module on house history, and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

His latest publication, The Restless Kings, explores the reigns of Henry II, Richard I and John.

Previous works include Who Do You Think You Are Encyclopaedia of Family History, Tracing the History of Your House, Lost Voices from the Titanic, Greater London – the Story of the Suburbs and The Forgotten Spy. He is currently the President of the Family History Federation, sits on the Executive Committee of the Community Archives and Heritage Group and is part of the Midlands 4 Cities Doctoral Training Partnership Advisory Group.






Genevieve Bovee

Genevieve Bovee

Senior Researcher



Genevieve Bovee, BA (Hons) PGC Arch Hist (Oxon), is a historian and archive researcher who joined SRA in 2010, focusing on genealogy and house history, and is now our senior researcher.
She has contributed to various radio and television productions, including Tracing Your Roots (Radio 4), Missing Millions (ITV 1), the Australian series of Who Do You Think You Are? broadcast on SBS ONE, and was the archive researcher for two series of Nick Knowles’ Original Features (UKTV).

Genevieve has also appeared on-screen as an archive expert on Find My Past (Yesterday). She was the Associate Editor of Your Family History (2012-13) and also provided research and writing support to Dr. Nick Barratt for Greater London: A History of the Suburbs (2012).



Charlotte Young

Charlotte Young

Researcher



Charlotte first joined SRA as a summer work experience placement more years ago than she cares to admit, and never left. She is primarily a genealogist and local historian, with particular fondness for the early modern period.
At SRA she has worked on programmes including BBC Radio 4’s ‘Tracing Your Roots’, as well as the US and Australian versions of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’.

She has a PhD in History from Royal Holloway, University of London. Her thesis studied the policy of sequestration during the English Civil War, which enabled Parliament to confiscate the real and personal estates of Catholics and royalists.

Outside of SRA Charlotte is a visiting tutor at the University of London, teaching the history of European political thought from ancient Greece to the 18thcentury. She is an Honorary Visiting Fellow in English Local History at the University of Leicester’s renowned Centre for English Local History. She is also working with Northamptonshire Victoria County History to research and write the history of Towcester hundred, and is a convenor of the British History in the 17th Century seminar group at the Institute of Historical Research.



Claire Kennan

Claire Kennan

Researcher



Qualifications: BA History (1st Class Hons) Royal Holloway, University of London; MA Medieval Studies (Distinction), Royal Holloway, University of London; PhD Medieval History, Royal Holloway, University of London; Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Claire joined SRA in 2019 after completing her PhD under the supervision of Professor Nigel Saul at Royal Holloway, University of London in 2018. Claire specialises in the history of Britain between c.1066 and c.1500, with a particular focus on medieval religion, urban centres, local history, trade and guilds.

She has extensive experience in archival research, academic and report writing, educational resource development and media work. In 2019 she was one of the AHRC’s Creative Economy Engagement Fellows at The National Archives (London) and between 2017 and 2020 she was the Medieval Specialist on the £1 million National Lottery Heritage Fund Citizens Project at Royal Holloway. Since 2016 Claire has worked with the BBC, BBC Radio 4, Channel 4 and Channel 5, appearing as a featured contributor on programmes including ‘The Bone Detectives: Britain’s Buried Secrets’ and ‘Britain’s Most Historic Towns’. She is also a featured presenter on the History Hub YouTube channel and was recently interviewed for the History Hack podcast.



Steph Hagan

Steph Hagan

Researcher



Steph has an MA (Oxon) in Modern History from Jesus College, Oxford and a Masters Degree in Design Studies from Central St Martins College of Art & Design. She joined Sticks Research Agency in 2016 after 20 years in the private and not-for-profit sector
working in research, consultancy and communications roles.
Steph works on a wide range of projects for both individuals and commercial clients. Her expertise and skills range from genealogy and family histories; to house histories, property and land use. An experienced business researcher, Steph has a particular interest and focus on corporate histories.

Steph has provided research for local heritage organisations, exhibitions and heritage projects across London, including Heritage Lottery Funded projects; and she is part of the volunteer team at Merton Local Heritage Services. She has many years’ experience creating and commissioning a variety of end products including websites, books, reports and interactive presentations. Steph is also a Governor at a primary school in Wimbledon where she lives.



Lauren Willmott

Lauren Willmott

Researcher



Lauren completed her undergraduate degree (First Class) in History and German at the University of Nottingham. She has an MA (Distinction) in Modern History from King’s College London. She is primarily a historian of the Second World War and the Holocaust.
She is also an experienced genealogy researcher having spent four years as a records specialist at The National Archives in Kew.

Lauren has published articles for History Today and her book Images of the National Archives: Suffragettes was published in 2018. Her latest article, written with Dr Gilly Carr, ‘A Right to Compensation After Persecution? British Victims of Nazism’ in the Beyond Camps and Forced Labour volume is due for publication in February 2021.

Lauren has been a curator at a major national museum for 4 years. She is currently working on a new permanent exhibition, which will open later this year.



Oliver Bradbury

Oliver Bradbury

Architectural researcher



Oliver Bradbury is an architecture researcher and design historian. Since 2008 he has been self-employed, having previously worked as a Listed Building and Blue Plaque Consultant for English Heritage (2002-04) and in 2006 a trainee Conservation Officer for the London Borough of Ealing. In 2006-08 Oliver was Assistant Architectural Adviser to Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust, London.
Having gained a Master of Letters (M.Litt.) in 2003, in 2018 Oliver was awarded a Ph.D. based largely on his 2015 book, Sir John Soane’s Influence on Architecture from 1791 – A Continuing Legacy (Ashgate Publishing Company).
He has published five books and numerous articles since 1995. Outside his paid work as an architectural researcher, Oliver’s debut exhibition in 2018 was ‘The music that saved a decade: divining the eighties underground (through original perceptions), 1979-1991’, Barbican Music Library, 14 July-5 October 2018.

This has just been published in book form in late 2020. And Oliver is also probably the world’s first automobile Colour and Trim design historian, currently publishing an ongoing series: ‘Vanden Plas Car Colour and Trim Guides 1960-1982’, in Carriagecraft The Vanden Plas Owners Club Magazine. He will debut Colour and Trim as a new genre in Aspects of Motoring History, The Journal of the Society of Automotive Historians in Britain, in 2021.



Rod Summer

Rod Summer

Researcher



Rod has nearly two decades’ research experience working for clients at The National Archives.

A former history student a Roehampton University, Rod’s particular areas of expertise include house history, legal searches relating to land ownership, and chancel repair searches, with particular emphasis on the 1910 valuation office survey, tithe apportionments and enclosure awards. He also covers military history and maritime records.



Amy Bloom

Amy Bloom

Researcher



Amy has an upper class 2:1 in History (BA hons) from Royal Holloway, University of London, and is currently completing her masters in History with the University of Edinburgh.

he has explored numerous periods and events, predominantly from the modern period; interwar European politics, the Victorian monarchy, Georgian society, sex and identity in early modern Britain and twentieth century British history, to name a few.

Amy’s main area of interest has been social history, and more specifically gender history and the history of sexuality. Her undergraduate dissertation explored the historical discourse of bisexuality and its place in modern Britain, for example. Amy has tailored her Masters degree to this interest in gender and sexuality, investigating areas such as femininity in the postbellum American South, as well as medieval sexuality, identity and prostitution. She has chosen to explore the realities of menstruation and menopause for medieval women in her thesis.

Amy has a keen interest in genealogy, social history and local history. She is passionate about the history of ordinary people, uncovering the intricacies of everyday life, and looking in particular at how gender has shaped various threads of the past.



Czarina Cabagui

Czarina Cabagui

Digital Design & Marketing



Czarina joined the Sticks Research Agency team in September 2020 as part of a creative rebranding project.
She is currently a final year undergraduate at the University of East Anglia working towards a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. She also attended Louisiana State University during her year abroad and was enrolled in Psychology, Marketing, Mass Communication and Management modules.

She is particularly interested in creative digital marketing and has acquired internship experiences across various industries. Czarina primarily specialises in SRA’S social media management, digital design and marketing.




Noshin Begum

Noshin Begum

Web Designer & Developer



Noshin joined SRA in September 2020. She specialises in technical outcomes, designed and built this website and currently maintains and updates the site.
She has a range of experience in web design, development and software engineering from her qualifications, past experiences and internships. Noshin’s expertise lies in many programming languages and she is passionate in digital design, development and testing.

Noshin mainly focusses on SRA’s website and technical outputs. Noshin’s also written a cookbook to raise money for UNICEF and an article for BuzzFeed Tech, she also runs her own clean beauty brand and blog. Noshin’s been teaching Maths, Science, English and Computer Science for over 5 years. BSc Computer Science at Goldsmiths, University of London.