Maritime History of Newport
Peter Brown
Peter Brown was born in Newport and lived in Pill in the 1950s. His mother’s family came to Newport in 1865, and successive generations were dockworkers for the next 100 years. His father arrived in Newport for the first time on an aircraft carrier in 1944.
His interest in archaeology began when he lived in Bahrain and saw the excavations undertaken by a Danish team at the site of the ancient settlement of Dilmun. Later, he worked as an English Heritage archaeologist, specialising in interpreting historical monuments. He studied in the Archaeology Department at the University of Leicester, which later discovered King Richard III under a car park that Peter used to use as a training manager for Leicestershire County Council!
His later work included HRM, business development, European programmes and tutoring on the University of Leicester’s global business courses.
In 2004, he returned to Newport to work at the University in Caerleon on European projects and heritage course development. In 2009, he wrote the history of the University, No More Worlds to Conquer: The Story of Newport’s University, and also contributed the history of Newport's Town Bridge to the Newport Past website.
He now lives in the World Heritage Site at Saltaire in West Yorkshire and works as a writer and editor.