Victoria Sands
DPhil Student - Lincoln College
victoria.sands@lincoln.ox.ac.uk
Research Topic: Hidden Lives: A History of Women, the London Charterhouse and the Wider Community
Supervisors: Hannah Skoda, Lucy Wooding and Peter Aiers.
My research focuses on illuminating the hidden lives of medieval and early modern women who were associated with the London Charterhouse between 1371 and 1750. The Charterhouse has an incredibly interesting history, with the site changing functions and acting at different points as burial ground, monastery, mansion, almshouse and school. What roles did women undertake in this traditionally male institution? How and why did they interact with the Charterhouse? What types of influence did they exhibit? These are the streams of thought I will pursue during this project. Archival historical research using material at the London Metropolitan Archives, the National Archives, on site at the Charterhouse and elsewhere in other London galleries and museums will be central to this study. This study hopes to provide a better understanding of women at the Charterhouse that will not only add to the Charterhouse’s historiography, but that of the wider London community.
My research is supported by the Arts and Humanities Council and the Clarendon Fund.
About Me
I completed my undergraduate degree in Archaeology and History and masters degree in Heritage Management at the University of Southampton. Following this, I worked in the commercial archaeology sector for several years, where I specialised in archives and finds. During this time, I also completed a second masters in History at the University of Cambridge, where I developed my interest in women's history that I would later pursue during my DPhil.
Publications
- 'How the Carthusians Resisted the Reformation', History Today Magazine (2026)
- ‘The Secret Women of the Charterhouse’, The Brother’s Magazine, The Charterhouse (2026).
- ‘Women and the London Charterhouse 1371-1750’, The Greyhound Magazine, Charterhouse School (2026).
You can often find my contributions on the Charterhouse Blog: https://thecharterhouse.org/blog/
Prizes & Funding
- Laurence Binyon Prize, University of Oxford (2026)
- Clarendon Scholarship, University of Oxford (2024)
- Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award, University of Oxford and London Charterhouse (2024)
- Early Career Archaeologist Achievement Award, Council for British Archaeology (2022)
