Hello and thank you for visiting Lancastrian Research. My name is Naomi Parsons.

After working in local heritage for over ten years, I decided to set up Lancastrian Research to further my passion for local and family history research. I enjoy exploring all aspects of local and social history but specialise in working class histories, institutional history (prisons, asylums, workhouses, hospitals), public health and mapping land use with a focus on the 18th-20th centuries. Additionally, I am a Freewoman of Lancaster and am a Trustee of the Lancaster Health & Medical Museum Collection

I began my career in heritage as a ‘Pendle Witch’, delivering Halloween tours around the city centre. This then led to a long term role as a tour guide for Lancaster Castle; working at a transition point as the ancient prison was being transformed into a modern tourist attraction. Over the next few years I began working for Lancashire County then later Lancaster City Council Museums Services, working at the Judges’ Lodgings, Cottage Museum, Maritime and City Museums. For several years my focus was on education, delivering family and school historical character sessions and an opportunity to focus on one of my main areas of interest (institutional history) took me to Ripon Museum Trust’s Workhouse, Courthouse and Prison Museums in North Yorkshire for a time. However my love of the Lancaster area and its intricate histories brought me back and ever since I have been working in the local heritage sector, focusing my energies on working with the public and helping them with their varied local and family history enquiries.

My academic background is a BSc in Geography and History from Lancaster University. I also hold a PGDip in Museum Studies from Leicester University. I have previously delivered talks such as ‘Life, Death & Living Conditions in Lancaster’ and ‘Yards, Courts & Working Class Housing’ to the public. Most recently I have worked with Lancashire Archives, Lancaster Royal Grammar School, Christ Church Lancaster and the Regional Heritage Centre at Lancaster University to deliver the exhibition “I’m Going to East Road”: A History of Lancaster Workhouse’ in summer 2022 with accompanying guided walks and talks. In 2023 I began a new long term research project to record the stories of all the women who were given a sentence of transportation to Australia at Lancaster Castle and have published a paper and delivered talks and walking tours on my research to date.

Personally, I have been researching my own family tree for well over a decade, adding layers and stories as I go. I have been fascinated to discover the expected publicans, fishermen and cotton mill workers as well as following the English Traveller community members on my paternal line and the mysterious great aunt who emigrated from Heysham to end up in the tenements of New York. Family history has been an endless source of intrigue and enjoyment to me.

Outside of researching, I enjoy mudlarking and beachcombing; finding and making new objects with the physical remains of our area’s past. I am a keen photographer and hiker and love to be outdoors in nature, exploring our beautiful district and growing veg and tending to my garden allotment.

After being made a Freewoman of Lancaster with Mayor Roger Dennison (2023 in Lancaster Town Hall)