The changing town centre
Market Place, shopfronts, empty units, public-realm choices and the visible signs of transition.
The main public section
Sleaford
A market town in Lincolnshire, photographed and researched through a period of visible change. The work follows the town's transition — its Market Place, shopfronts, landmarks and everyday life — and keeps the evidence trail open enough to question.
The town in transition
A £1m Market Place, deferred twice
Sleaford's Market Place regeneration became a genuine public controversy: a council vision for a refreshed public realm met by objections over access, parking, business survival and heritage identity. The £1m revamp was deferred after objections in November 2023, then deferred again that December, before later progressing — the regeneration project was shortlisted for an LGC award in March 2026. The work documents both the official vision and the public resistance, side by side.
Public essay candidates
First public essays
Opinion as material
How public comments, surveys and street-level evidence can be organised without pretending they are the whole truth.
Heritage uncovered
Historic features revealed as shopfronts were given a new lease of life — the past surfacing through the present.
Photographic rooms
The archive wall
Landmarks & memory
The windmill, civic buildings and older surfaces held as evidence rather than nostalgia.
Lines of arrival
Railway platforms, crossings and routes — the places where the town opens, waits and moves.
Still places
Courtyards, paths and green edges where the looking slows down and settles.
Method in public
Show the dead ends too
Some sources are blocked, partial or unverified. Rather than hide that, the public research shows its gaps and the leads still to be revisited — building trust by making the process visible. The full method and the living opinion log sit behind the research, with summaries surfaced here.
Publication rule: only summaries and selected, cited evidence go public first. Raw notes, dead ends, private journals and full transcripts stay protected. See the bibliography for current sources.