"An (Im)perfect Paradise": Materiality, space and the embodiment of empire at Shugborough Hall.

This research project will closely analyse the collections, buildings and gardens of the Shugborough estate in order to
answer broader questions about the formation of landed estates, the interaction between local and global ideas and the
importance of material culture to imperial identity in eighteenth-century England. This project will challenge the
representation of country estates as fixed conduits of 'English' identity by placing Shugborough in an international
context. By considering the role of George Ansons' activities in the Carolinas and in the Atlantic economy more
generally, this PhD aims to gain a deeper understanding as to how the Ansons were able to finance the development of
the Shugborough estate. In so doing, it will also consider how the Ansons' global connections influenced the aesthetics
of Shugborough, and how the space functioned in its provincial locality as an expression of imperialism and an agent of
empire in its own right. The time scale of this project will focus on the development of the Shugborough estate under
Thomas and George Anson in the mid-eighteenth century, although an end date for the project has not yet been decided;
this is largely because the project will be led by the collections and estate papers themselves, and until they have been
examined, it would be difficult to fit the project within a more specific time frame.