Peter Davey

A series of interviews with Peter Davey, former Director of Manx Studies, who was centrally involved in the some of the most important archaeological digs conducted in the Isle of Man over the past 50 years.

Interview 1 (1 Dec 2024)
A conversation about his youth and professional life up until the founding of the Centre for Manx Studies in 1992.
Born during a bombing raid in Great Yarmouth in 1942, Peter describes his formative experiences of discovering archaeology through a 17th Century clay pipe uncovered on the coast, geology through a Scout badge, and Gaelic community through the seasonal Scottish fishermen and herring workers. His unusual school years included his first public lecture at the age of 14 (on 'Flegg Coastal Fluctuation') and the learning of Anglo-Saxon, Greek and Middle French, on top of French and Latin.
After an brief period studying philosophy at Durham University, he moved to Theology at King's College London before obtaining his Diploma of Education from Oxford. Teaching took him from maths to geography, which carried him by chance into archaeology and the University of Liverpool. Between his work here and as Director of Excavations at the University of Chester, Peter was involved in setting up the Cheshire Archaeological Bulletin, the Medieval Pottery Research Group, the Merseyside Archaeological Society, the Archaeological Survey of Merseyside, and the Liverpool Field Archaeology Unit.
From 1977, Peter began visiting the Isle of Man and became familiar with the important figures of the day, including Basil and Eleanor Megaw, Sheila Cregeen and Marshall Cubbon. From this came his involvement in the Peel Castle excavation (including the discovery of the 'Pagan Lady'), the Rushen Abbey excavation, and then the beginning of the Centre of Manx Studies.

Other interviews will come soon.

Interviews

When you click play on one of the interviews below there will be a slight delay as the audio file is downloaded. Large files or slow internet connections will increase the length of this delay.

• Peter Davey interviewed by Paul Quayle (1 December 2024)