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Essex
The historic county of Essex is one of the larger counties in England, its western half gradually absorbed into London's eastern sprawl from the nineteenth century onwards. Its buildings are appropriately varied in character, ranging from the Edwardian civic buildings of West Ham and Walthamstow, to the fishing and sailing ports and seaside resorts of the estuaries of the east coast. Besides the great Norman Castle Hedingham and Elizabethan Audley End, Essex boasts pioneering brick houses such as Layer Marney Towers as well as numerous fine timber buildings. Towns and cities range from Colchester with its rich Roman and medieval remains, to the more recent experiments at Harlow New Town.
County Durham
The premier monument is Durham Cathedral, greatest of English Norman churches. Lovers of the Middle Ages will also seek out the county's exceptional Anglo-Saxon churches, while many of its great castles - Brancepeth, Raby, Auckland, Lambton - conceal palatial Georgian and Victorian interiors. The landscape varies dramatically, from the wilds of Teesdale and Weardale, in the west, to the pioneering industrial ports of Sunderland and Hartlepool on the coast, including fine gentry houses and stone-built market towns. South Tyneside and northern Cleveland, historically part of County Durham, are also covered.
Wiltshire
From prehistoric Stonehenge and Avebury to railway age Swindon, the rolling countryside of Wiltshire encompasses every aspect of English building. Thirteenth-century Salisbury cathedral is set in a spacious close, within a planned medieval town, which boasts Georgian delights such as Mompesson House. Towns and villages range from Marlborough with its sweeping High Street to the exceptional Lacock, in the shadow of its abbey's remains, remodelled as an eighteenth-century Gothick fantasy. The great country houses include some of the finest in England: Palladian Wilton, with which Inigo Jones was involved, Stourhead set in its evocative classical landscape, the elegant eithteenth-century Bowood and the mellow Bath stone of Corsham Court.
London
This volume on London architecture covers the boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey and Islington. It gives a view of London's expansion northward from formal Georgian squares, to the hill towns of Hampstead and Highgate.
Hertfordshire
Although so close to London this is still a rural area, with quiet country churches with fine monuments, timber-framed farmhouses, and some splendid country houses, of which the most celebrated is Cecil's Jacobean Hatfield House. At St Albans the remains of Roman Verulamium and the great early Norman abbey speak eloquently of older civilizations. The towns offer intriguing contrasts: Hertford, Bishop's Stortford and Hitchin still have the character of traditional market centres, while the new towns of Stevenage, Hemel Hempstead and Hatfield are important exemplars of planning ideals of the 1950s and 60s.
Dorset
"Everybody tells you Dorset is a house or mansion county, not a church county...Yet when one sets down all one has seen of Dorset churches...one suddenly realises how much one has enjoyed", wrote Pevsner at the conclusion of his journey. The county provides many unexpected pleasures in ecclesiastical buildings, from the Norman arches of Wimborne Minster, the Early English solemnity of Milton Abbey, to the splendour of Sherborne and the monuments and furnishings of numerous smaller buildings. Of castles, mansions and houses, Dorset boasts the evocative ruins of Corfe; the splendid Kingston Lacy; mighty Milton Abbey House and a wealth of more modest homes. But the county also possesses fine towns and villages, from the Georgian elegance of Weymouth and Lyme Regis, to the model estate village of Milton Abbas.
London 2
London 2: South is a uniquely comprehensive guide to the twelve southern boroughs. Its riverside buildings range from the royal splendours of Hampton Court and Greenwich and the Georgian delights of Richmond, to the monuments of Victorian commerce in Lambeth and Southwark. But the book also charts lesser known suburbs, from former villages such as Clapham to still rural, Edwardian Chislehurst, as well as the results of twentieth-century planners' dreams from Roehampton to Thamesmead. Full accounts are given of London landmarks as diverse as Southwark Cathedral, Soane's Dulwich Picture Gallery and the arts complex of the South Bank. The outer boroughs include diverse former country houses - Edward IV's Eltham Palace, the Jacobean Charlton House, and the Palladian Marble Hill. The rich Victorian churches and school buildings are covered in detail, as are the exceptional structures of Kew Gardens.
Buckinghamshire
This completely new edition reveals a county of contrasts. The semi-rural suburbia of outer-Outer London, with its important early Modern Movement houses, is counterbalanced by magnificent mansions and parks, like idyllic Stowe and the Rothschilds' extravaganza at Waddesdon. The Saxon Church at Wing, the exquisite seventeenth-century Winslow Hall, and Slough's twentieth-century factories all contribute to Buckinghamshire's rich inheritance. In this new edition, the unspoilt centres of small towns, like Amersham and Buckingham, are revisited and Milton Keynes, Britain's last and most ambitious New Town, is explained and explored. The rich diversity of rural buildings, built of stone, brick, timber, and even earth, is investigated with scholarship and discrimination. This accessible and comprehensive guide is prefaced by an illuminating introduction and has many excellent illustrations, plans and maps.
North Somerset and Bristol
Highlights of this volume are a full account of the Georgian marvels of Bath, and a separate section on the port of Bristol, whose sumptuous Victorian commercial buildings are among the best of their date in England.
Leicestershire and Rutland
Pevsner wrote that "Leicestershire is not a county of extremes" and agreed that "no other county in England surpasses Rutland for unspoiled quiet charm". The large and the small Midland counties possess a varied and rewarding range of buildings. Church architecture encompasses the classical Normanton, preserved in remote isolation from the flood of Rutland Water, to Market Harborough with its elegant medieval steeple, and a fine group of Victorian churches in Leicester. The major country houses include Belvoir Castle, Staunton Harold and Burley-on-the-Hill, while the more modest homes of the late nineteenth century include notable work by Ernest Gimson, Voysey and a garden city at Leicester by Parker & Unwin. Leicestershire also possesses fine modern buildings, from its architecturally progressive schools to the justly renowned buildings of Leicester University, dominated by Stirling & Gowan's Engineering Building.
