Jill Lidgey

About me:

I returned to study a little later on in life: 40 years since I graduated from Durham and 24 years since my Masters at the Institute of Education, London University. My working life has been in professional and higher education institutions and I left Oxford Brookes Universty in 2003 to spend time with our daughter and to run a business from home.  I became involved in markets and fairs as a producer and seller in Dorset from 2005 to 2018. However, Wareham Home Producers Market closed in 2018 and the difficulty in making craft markets a viable outlet contributed to my interest in researching the role and future of markets in Dorset. The challenges faced from online shopping, high street retailers and cheaper imports of goods have made some markets vulnerable.  I am researching how the markets are supported - nationally, regionally and through trade associations - and whether they are an attractive outlet for entrepreneurs, small farms and artisan producers.  Fieldwork undertaken over the last year has been enlightening and allowed me to form connections and engagements with  traders from a number of Dorset-based markets, market management and market users/non-users.  I am optimistic that the markets I have been researching do have a future.

I am based in Dorset, just outside Wareham where I live with my husband.

Research Unit:
CRPR