Resources

The Development of the House & Home in Britain
From September 2015, we will be examining the way the house has developed in Britain from the earliest times through to the 21st century, both architecturally and socially, as habitations have adapted, or not,  to new living styles and social changes.
Given that, it will be quite important that we do this in as near chronological order as we can manage, but clearly we can't cover everything, I'm going to suggest that we each opt for two topics: one building style and one social aspect. 

I'm taking as the organising outline the chapter headings in The Life of the British Home, Edward Denison and Guang Yu Ren, Wiley 2012.This is not a cheap book (used £14.13 from Amazon), and Cumbria Libraries doesn't have a copy. And the man Brunskill's Houses and Cottages of Britain: Origins and Development of Traditional Buildings is, of course, magisterial, both in diagrams and images. But there are plenty of others that deal, briefly or at length, with the subject matter. 

The chapter headings are:

1. Sticks and Stones - The ancient Abode from the Stone Age to Roman Invasion
2. Roman Homes and the Newfangled Rectangle
3. Wooden Walls and Fledgling Halls - Anglo Saxon and Viking Britain 410-1066
4. The Hearth and Hall - Medieval Britain 1066 - 1485
5. Architecture and Avarice - The Tudors and Early Stuarts 1485-1649
6. The Compact Commodity - Civil War and our Georges 1649-1830
7. Home Sweet Home? - The Industrial Age 1830-1910
8. The 'Modern' Home - The 20th Century and Beyond

We might want to back-end weight the subject matter: i.e. take two periods in each of October/November—I'll do a overview in September—and give more time to the later periods.

For the social aspects, there are two ways to go: how society's organisation influenced the way homes were set out, and the development/invention of those aspects of a home we take for-granted now.

I'm also looking for relevant visits we can do, outside the monthly Wednesday meetings, within a 60 mile radius. This is unlikely to include period 1 Sticks and Stones, as most of these are either in the Orkneys or far down south (please tell me if you know better)!

I've, inevitably, been assembling quite a library of appropriate books, especially after a visit to Westwood Books in Sedbergh. I've listed quite a few below, and below this, a growing list of links to webpages and sites which have covered various periods and issues.

Books and weblinks
Here are some books. I have given full bibliographic listings, plus links to Amazon, and also Google Books, where they exist (appropriate for the older, pre-1940, books: most of these are not full renditions of the books, leaving out chunks as required by copyright rules)).

The greatest, most frequently referenced, book is Nathaniel Lloyd's A History of the English House:

Lloyd, Nathaniel: A History of the English House,The Architectural Press, London, 19315-83
       Amazon:
       Google Books:

The online version of the J M Richards book: A Miniature History of the English House is here.

The Garden City 

Over the next four months we will be looking at the idea of the Garden City: its development, historical antecedents, its proponents, its earliest manifestations, later developments, the current revival of interest in the idea, and the politics behind it.

A sensible starting point is Ebernezer Howard. 
To get started here are a few links:
Ebernezer Howard
The best copy of the famous Howard image is here:

There is a useful extract from the Garden Cities of Tomorrow 1902 book here:
http://urbanplanning.library.cornell.edu/DOCS/howard.htm

This is from a site at Cornell: Urban Planning, 1794-1918: An International Anthology of Articles, Conference Papers, and Reports
which is a cornucopia of great material

There's a great site that acts as a summary of the movement and the links to New Towns, and focuses on Welwyn here:
http://www.rickmansworthherts.freeserve.co.uk/howard1.htm

In general, Googling terms around Garden City/Cities, Ebernezer Howard, and following other links, will delver rich pickings.

Jonathan Meades & Letchworth
The Jonathan Meades BBC video on Letchworth that I mentioned and that Bryan, Harry and I watched last time, is here:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qT5FquwhpA
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RbGJ1ikp50
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cSn-WHPNtA
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFOl97jc7W0
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9az0acl8yBQ

I'm a fan of Meades, but you may find the presentation hard work. The material is excellent though and worth 50 minutes.

Sharpe, Paley & Austin

Key document by Mark Pearce

I've added a link to a masterful thesis by Mark Pearce, with his permission, entitled "The Development of the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin", which is a huge document (236 pages), but full of insights, and information not available elsewhere.

 The document is available here. A recommenced read, or at least perusal.

 Other interesting links:

A few words to church-builders.
Published 1841 by Cambridge Camden Society at the University Press in Cambridge .
https://archive.org/stream/fewwordstochurch00camb#page/n5/mode/2up 

Victorian Architecture in General:
http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/index.html

Books:
The key book on Sharpe, Paley & Austin is a tome by Geoff Brantwood: The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley & Austin, English Heritage 2012. It's seriously expensive (£45), but the Cumbria library system has six copies around the county. My own copy will be under the Christmas tree, which means my library copy will be back in Ulverston Library.

A second, slimmer, cheaper, book is Sharpe, Paley & Austin: A Lancaster Architectural Practice 1836-1942, by James Price. The Cumbria library system has four copies, but secondhand copies can be found for around £6. I hope to be contact with Price in the next few weeks.

The Wikipedia entries for Sharpe, Paley & Austin are very good, heavily (very heavily) reliant on the Brantwood book, and there are good lists of all the buildings as well. The other aspects of Victorian Gothic are well covered too.

On church architecture generally, there are:
Mark Child: Discovering Churches and Churchyards, Shire, often available cheaply (Henry Roberts etc.). Good short chapter on the Victorians.
Mark Child: Discovering Church Architecture, again Shire
Matthew Rice: Rice's Church Primer, if you like the style (I find it difficult)
Recording A Church: An Illustrated Glossary, Council for British Archaeology
Roy Strong: A Little History of the English Parish Church Vintage. Really, a gem of a read (Again Cumbria Libraries has five or so copies)

I've put togeher a one page timeline for the practice, which we can amend as we go along. Available here.


Art & Crafts Movement and Architecture

There are a number of resources for the early months: chief among these is:

Nicholas Pevsner: Pioneers of Modern Design (in older editions, Pioneers of the Modern Movement). The best introduction. There are lots of copies available on Amazon for £4.12 upwards (including postage). Amazingly, Cumbria Libraries appear not to have a single copy. The more modern editions have lots of colour illustrations. My 1968 copy is just b&w!.

Also worth a look at are two contemporary works that are available both online and as ebook downloads:

John Ruskin: The Stones of Venice Vol 1 online at Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30754/30754-h/30754-h.htm and as an ebook in many formats: http://archive.org/details/stonesofvenice01rusk

William Morris & Members of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society: Essays, available online :http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_Essays

The Wikipedia pages on the Arts & Crafts Movement are a good starting point for any extra research:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement

In general I can recommend the Wikipedia articles for most topics in this area: some of the architect coverage is patchy and incomplete, but still a good starting point.

A very nicely illustrated page is: http://www.williammorristile.com/what_is_arts_and_crafts.html
































































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