Role
Dr Chris Brooke is a Visiting Research Fellow in Environmental Sciences.
Career overview
Dr Brooke gained his first degree in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Bradford, and a PhD from the University of Nottingham in the field of archaeological remote sensing - the use of scientific, non-destructive methods of recovering archaeological information from buildings, excavations, and sites under survey.
Prior to joining the University, he has worked in a wide range of organizations from Central and Local Government, through university teaching appointments and industry, to freelance consultancy. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Associate Fellow of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society, and a member of many professional organizations both nationally and in the East Midlands, Dr Brooke serves on a large number of advisory boards and committees.
He also formerly held the title of Head of the Historic Environment Service with Leicestershire County Council, and most recently the Deputy Director of Conservation with the National Trust for Scotland.
Research areas
Dr Brooke's principal research specialisation is in remote sensing, non-destructive archaeological site survey, record photography, digital-image analysis, mathematical image processing, Raman spectroscopy, environmental study, the history and archaeology of churches, and the recording and conservation of historic buildings.
He lectures in medieval archaeology and history, with particular expertise in the development and investigation of ecclesiastical buildings, and in remote sensing and GIS; having also written over forty papers and books on the subjects.
Dr Brooke's latest book is Safe Sanctuaries: Security and Defence in Anglo-Scottish Border Churches 1290-1690 published by John Donald, Edinburgh. His particular regional research interests include Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, the northern counties of England, the Anglo-Scottish Border, and north-west Scotland.
External activity
Dr Brooke has taught throughout the UK in the fields of buildings archaeology and medieval history, remote sensing, image processing, GIS, and analytical methods in archaeology and history; previously holding formal teaching posts at the CourtauId Institute of Art, Nottingham, and Leicester Universities.
He has been a visiting fellow and visiting lecturer at the universities of London, Bradford, York, Durham, Glasgow, Leicester, De Montfort, and is also an honorary research fellow in the Department of History at the University of Nottingham.
Sponsors and collaborators
Dr Brooke works widely with both national and international collaborators in the fields of archaeological remote sensing, thermal imaging, and Raman spectroscopy.
Publications
CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, HOWELL EDWARDS, PETER VANDENABEELE, SYLVIA LYCKE, and MICHELLE PEPPER, 2023. Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of a Mid-19th Century Reredos by Sir George Gilbert Scott Heritage. 6(7), 5082-5092. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6070269
HASSAN UGAIL, HOWELL EDWARDS, CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, TIMOTHY BENOY, 2022, Deep Facial Features for Analysing Artistic Depictions – A Case Study in Evaluating 16th and 17th Century Old Master Portraits. Proceedings of the 14th International IEEE Conference on Software, Knowledge, Information Management & Applications, 198-203. http://doi.org/10.1109/SKIMA57145.2022.10029439
CHRISTOPHER J BROOKE, HOWELL G.M. EDWARDS, FILIP KOŜEK, JAN JEHLIĈKA, CAROLINE STANFORD, AND MATTHEW J. CHAMPION, 2022. The analysis of two historic fired artificial stonewares: Coade stone (18th-19th Century) and a recent discovery from Oxnead Hall, Norfolk (16th-17th Century), Archaeometry. http://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12842
CHRISTOPHER J BROOKE and PETER F RYDER, 2022. Averham, St Michael, Nottinghamshire: a newly identified pre-conquest church, The Antiquaries Journal. 102, 88-110. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581521000330
CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, HOWELL EDWARDS, LUIZ F. C. OLIVEIRA, RICHARD TELFORD and ALEX SURTEES, 2021. A spectroscopic analysis of late 16th century domestic wall paintings in the Saracens Head Inn, Nottinghamshire, UK Journal of Raman Spectroscopy. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrs.6243
DR CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, 2021. Investigating Painted Schemes in Churches using Raman Spectroscopy, Ecclesiology Today.
CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, HOWELL EDWARDS, PETER VANDENABEELE, SYLVIA LYCKE and MICHELLE PEPPER, 2020. Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of an Early 20th Century English Painted Organ Case by Temple Moore, Heritage. 3(4), 1148-1161. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/heritage3040064
BROOKE, CHRISTOPHER J and BECKETT, JOHN, 2020. Researching our churches: the Southwell and Nottingham church history project, Church Archaeology. 17, 1-18.
DR CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, 2020. Discovering Groups in Ecclesiastical Data: The Use of Cluster Analysis in the Southwell and Nottingham Church History Project. In: RICHARD A GAUNT, ed., Church, Land and People Essays Presented to John Beckett, 209-228.
DR CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, 2020. Post-Roman and Medieval Settlement [and other contributions]. In: CLARE HARTWELL, NIKOLAUS PEVSNER and ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON, eds., The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire, 3rd edition.
CHRISTOPHER BROOKE and BEN CLUTTERBUCK, 2019. Mapping Heterogeneous Buried Archaeological Features Using Multisensor Data from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Remote Sensing. 12(1), 41. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12010041
CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, 2018. Thermal Imaging for the Archaeological Investigation of Historic Buildings, Remote Sensing. 10(9), 1401. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10091401
R. F. FERNANDES, L. F. C. DE OLIVEIRA, H. G. M. EDWARDS, C. J. BROOKE and M. PEPPER, 2017. Raman spectroscopic analysis of a belltower commemorative wall decoration, Applied Physics A. 123(2). http://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-017-0761-4
HOWELL G. M. EDWARDS, ROSALIND WOLSTENHOLME, DAVID S. WILKINSON, CHRISTOPHER BROOKE and MICHELLE PEPPER, 2007. Raman spectroscopic analysis of the enigmatic Comper pigments, Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. 387(6), 2255-2262. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-006-1113-y
MARGARITA D'IAZ-ANDREU, CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, MICHAEL RAINSBURY and NICK ROSSER, 2006. The spiral that vanished: the application of non-contact recording techniques to an elusive rock art motif at Castlerigg stone circle in Cumbria, Journal of Archaeological Science. 33(11), 1580-1587. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2006.02.010
HOWELL G. M. EDWARDS, DENNIS W. FARWELL and CHRISTOPHER J. BROOKE, 2005. Raman spectroscopic study of a post-medieval wall painting in need of conservation, Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. 383(2), 312-321. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-005-0012-y
DR CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, 2003. Airborne Thermography and Ground Geophysical Investigation for Detecting Shallow Ground Disturbance under Vegetation In: GS-AGU-EUG Joint Assembly, 6-11 April 2003. Nice: EGS.
DR CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, 2001. The Retrieval of Damaged Inscriptions Through Remote Sensing Techniques. In: JANE FAWCETT, ed., Historic Floors Their Care and Conservation, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. 101-105.
DR CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, 2000. Safe Sanctuaries: Security and Defence in Anglo-Scottish Border Churches 1290-1690, Edinburgh: John Donald.
C. J. BROOKE, H. G. M. EDWARDS and J. K. F. TAIT, 1999. The Bottesford Blue mystery: a Raman spectroscopic study of post-mediaeval glazed tiles, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy. 30(6), 429-434.
H. G. M. EDWARDS, C. J. BROOKE and J. K. F. TAIT, 1997. Fourier Transform Raman Spectroscopic Study of Pigments from English Mediaeval Wall Paintings, Journal of Raman Spectroscopy. 28(2-3), 95-98.
DR CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, 1996. The Application of High Resolution Photographic Remote Sensing and Digital Image Processing in the Archaeological Examination of Historic Buildings In: Remote sensing, science and industry : proceedings of the 22nd Annual Conference of the Remote Sensing Society, 11-14 September 1996, Durham.
DR CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, 1995. MASS and LASP: Two Ground-based Remote Sensing Techniques for Recovering Illegible Carved Details, Graphic Archaeology.
CHRISTOPHER J BROOKE, ed., 1995. The Archaeology of Bellframes: Recording and Preservation.
CHRISTOPHER J. BROOKE, 1994. Ground-based remote sensing of buildings and archaeological sites: Ten years research to operation, Archaeological Prospection. 1(2), 105-119.
CHRISTOPHER J. BROOKE, 1994. Their Name Liveth: A Remote Sensing Survey to Decipher the Illegible Inscriptions on St Mary's War Memorial, Nottingham, Industrial Archaeology Review. 17(1), 75-78.
DR CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, 1994. Recording Churches and Cathedrals. In: JASON WOOD, ed., Buildings Archaeology: Applications in Practice, Oxford: Oxbow. 129-154.
C. J. BROOKE, 1987. Ground-based remote sensing for archaeological information recovery in historic buildings, International Journal of Remote Sensing. 8(7), 1039-1048.
DR CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, 1986. Ground-based remote sensing for the archaeological study of churches. In: L.A.S BUTLER and R. K. MORRIS, eds., The Anglo-Saxon church Papers on history, architecture, and archaeology in honour of Dr H M Taylor, 210-217.