From 2013/14 I began researching Clog Fighting a form of shin-kicking, known as Purring (or Porrin') in Wigan Borough supported by The Museum of Wigan Life. This research formed the basis for a solo exhibition in their gallery. I was then commissioned by Gallery Oldham to continue my research in the Oldham area and produce a show there. Through many interviews with people who came forward, archival research and study I surveyed the period of the sport - roughly from the 1600s through to the 1950s (a good 50 years beyond any assumed cessation in other documentation I found). I discovered locations, names of some fighters, methods and more, and have become the preeminent expert on this working class sport.  

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The below texts are the information boards I produced for the Gallery Oldham exhibition, designed by Amy Cecilia Leigh

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My research has been featured in: The Independent, The Telegraph, Vice Magazine, The Manchester Evening News, The Daily Mail, and Harper's Magazine as well as multiple other local press and online blogs such as Northern Soul. It was also featured on the TV show QI and I went down for the recording, BBC Wales and BBC Manchester and on the podcast No Such Thing as A Fish.