And this is how the A826 saga ends

Yesterday i made a couple of final tweaks then assembled a final master document and took it down to Staples to get it printed and bound! So thats it, my thesis. Officially about 9 months work though quite a lot of research and preparation work dates from the Summer of 2012. 14044 words on 19th century Stratford economics and tramway operation.

To be honest its all a bit rushed at the end. Ironically despite having all the time in the world for most of 2014 i start a new job in Worcester on Thursday and so would be unlikely to have the time to get it printed after that (it had to be at the OU by the middle of January anyway).

So i decided to tweak no more and commit. To be honest i'm not 100% happy with it but i don't know if thats just because i've been working on this so long i've just become too hyper-critical. I did notice one web reference was lacking an accessed date but hopefully thats the only MHRA faux pas. The arguments have been clearly presented, i managed to avoid repetition and my research has been deep so hopefully its enough. Staples did a lovely job with the printing and did it while i waited, it looks pretty good anyway.

When its sent in a few days my academic career with the OU which began back in 2005 will come to an end.. for now anyway. I would like to do a PhD or at least learn a language but these may have to wait for another time...