Dr Stephen Wass has an MA in Historical Archaeology from the University of Leicester gained during work with the National Trust on a major archaeological survey of Farnborough Park, Warwickshire. As part of a programme of D. Phil. research at the University of Oxford, he has investigated the extraordinary seventeenth century 'theme park' in the gardens around Hanwell Castle. His thesis has recently been published by Oxbow Books under the title of Seventeenth-Century Water Gardens and the Birth of Modern Scientific Thought in Oxford. He is an accredited member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (MCIfA).