I recently had an enquiry about my PhD, which I undertook at University College Worcester (validated by Coventry University), between 1994-97. My PhD was titled (and the citation is available from): Political Persuasion: Politicians and the Electorate in Yorkshire County Elections, 1708-42.
My thesis was not digitised at the time, but I have managed to grab the files from old floppy discs and I’ve tried to ensure that everything is as it should be (or as close to as it can be). I am in the process of depositing the thesis at Worcester in their repository, but it is also available here: Richard_Hall_PhD_thesis
It has been such an interesting experience re-engaging with this work, and reawakening a dormant (or fallow) but really important side of my academic life. As I am in the process of finalising the text for a new book titled The Dissolution of the Universities, which draws on the example of the dissolution of the monasteries in late medieval England, the historian in me feels like he might be re-awakening or unfolding in new ways.
This also reminded me of my Masters by Research, which I undertook in the School of History at the University of Leeds between 1993-94. This was an MA by Research, so thesis only (30k words). The title (with linked citation) was The Whigs and Yorkshire elections, 1695 to 1715. Anyway, there is no way of depositing this in an institutional repository, so I have uploaded the thesis here: Richard_Hall_MA_thesis.
On re-reading these, I realise that following the struggles of my undergraduate degree at Bristol, I really grew into historical research grounded in being methodical and waiting for insight to emerge based on faith in myself. I didn’t have this through school or until the final year of my first degree. Recovering this has been such an important, reflexive moment for me in remembering or learning to back myself in my analyses and interpretations. I realise that by the time my PhD was examined, when I was 26, I also began to understand what it was to exist academically in my own skin, and to have more of a sense of self. In retrospect, these two works, taken together, are significant moments of voice and agency.
NB1 
I also digitised pollbooks for the Yorkshire County Elections for 1708 and 1727, and a canvas that was undertaken by the Tories in 1727, which I used for analysis (the the pollbooks for 1734 and 1742). These were originally created in Paradox for Windows. I converted the files to Access and then Excel. The latter are also available here.
Yorkshire County Election Pollbook, 1708: Available at York Minster Library, as 1708 Shire Election Pollbook: Liber Miscellenea, Cat. 22, Add. MSS. 235.
Canvass for the Yorkshire County By-Election, 1727: Available at North Yorkshire County Record Office, as: Fitzwilliam (Malton) MSS., ‘Canvassbooks for the 1727 By-Election’.
Yorkshire County By-Election, 1727: Available at North Yorkshire County Record Office, as: Kirkleatham Hall Estate (ZK) Manuscript Pollbooks for the January 1727 Yorkshire County By-Election – mic. 1041; and Fitzwilliam (Malton) MSS. (ZPB) A Bag of Pollbooks for the 1727 Yorkshire By-Election – mic. 1446.
Yorkshire County Election, 1734: Available at North Yorkshire County Record Office, as Stapylton of Myton MSS. (ZLQ) Yorkshire County Pollbook for the 1734 Election – mic. 1160.
Yorkshire County By-Election, 1742: Available at York Minster Library as Printed Pollbook for the 1742 Yorkshire by-election: Box C8.
NB2 There were a few papers published from the MA and the PhD, as follows.
- Hall, R. (2001). Profiling the Yorkshire County Elector of the early eighteenth century: new material and methods. Historical Research, 74(184), 172-92. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/10854
- Hall. R. (2000). Voting Communities In The West Riding Of Yorkshire In The Early Eighteenth Century. Parliaments, Estates and Representations, 20, 91-109. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/10855
- Hall. R. (1999). The role of Cholmley Turner of Kirkleatham in Yorkshire County Elections in the Early Eighteenth Century. Cleveland History, 77, 20-32. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/10856
- Hall, R., and Richardson S. (1998). The Anglican Clergy and Yorkshire Elections in the Eighteenth Century. Bulletin of the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, 94, 1-34. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/10809
- Hall. R. (1998). ”Hurting a cause instead of serving it”: The 1734 Yorkshire election petition. Parliamentary History, 17(3), 323-42. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/10940
- Hall, R. (1996). Whig Party Fortunes at the Yorkshire County Election of 1708. Northern History, XXXII, 111-32. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/10810