Trevor Rowley


Richard Trevor Rowley FSA is an English landscape historian and archaeologist known for his work on the Welsh Marches, Oxfordshire and the medieval landscape. He was a founder fellow of Kellogg College and is now dean of degrees and emeritus fellow of Kellogg College.
He was educated at the Priory Grammar School, Shrewsbury, University College London and Linacre College, Oxford.
Trevor Rowley was a postgraduate student under the landscape historian W. G. Hoskins at Oxford University. After a short period teaching at a teacher training college in Birmingham, where he also worked as a part-time tutor for the Birmingham University Extra-Mural Department, he returned to Oxford in 1969. He was the first Staff Tutor in Archaeology and Local Studies, in what was then the Delegacy for Extra Mural Studies, based at Rewley House. During his time as Staff Tutor, later Director of Archaeology, he developed a thriving archaeology programme, which included conferences, professional training and excavations. From 1990 to 2000 he was the Deputy Director of what had by then become the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. During this time he was responsible for several major initiatives, including collaboration with the Open University on award bearing courses, which eventually led to the department offering the part-time postgraduate degrees, the first part-time qualification provided by Oxford University. He was also responsible for creating the Oxford Experience based at Christ Church, Oxford, a popular and successful summer school programme that still runs over six weeks each summer.
In 2000 he took early retirement to concentrate on full-time writing and lecturing. For many years he was a guest lecturer for Swan Hellenic Cruises and is currently a guest lecturer for Voyages to Antiquity. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1973 and between 1976 and 1979 he was Honorary Secretary of the Council for British Archaeology.
His current research work is on Norman landscapes and medieval Rome, He is a trustee of the Appleton Area Archaeological Research Project, which is investigating the history and archaeology of his home village of Appleton in Oxfordshire.

Selected publications