The cathedral city of Hereford is one of the best-kept historical secrets of the Welsh Marches. Although its Anglo-Saxon development is well known from a series of classic excavations in the 1960s and ’70s, what is less widely known is that the city boasts an astonishingly well-preserved medieval plan and contains some of the earliest houses still in everyday use anywhere in England. Three leading authorities on the buildings of the English Midlands have joined forces combining detailed ar...

Bristol is a major city and port in the south-west of England. In medieval times, it became the third largest city in the kingdom, behind London and York. Bristol was founded in the late Saxon period and grew rapidly in the 12th and 13th centuries. Initially, seaborne trading links with Ireland and France were particularly significant; later, from the 16th century onwards, the city became a focus for trade with Iberia, Africa, and the New World. This led to the growth of new industries suc...

It has long been recognised that the Church played a major role in the development of towns and cities from the earliest times, a fact attested to by the prominence and number of ecclesiastical buildings that still dominate many urban areas. Yet despite this physical evidence, and the work of archaeologists and historians, many important aspects of the early stages of urbanization in England are still poorly understood. Not least, there are many unanswered questions concerning the processe...

Climb aboard Pee Wee Puffer with Dick and the gang for an unhealthy dose… of smutty innuendo and double entendre. Be warned that this little collection of short stories is not suitable for children. Proceeds of the this publication will be donated to PSPA. The charity dedicated to helping people with progressive supranuclear palsy.

Medieval Rural Settlement: Britain and Ireland, AD 800-1600 is a major assessment and review of the origins, forms and evolutions of medieval rural settlement in Britain and Ireland across the period c. AD 800-1600. It offers a comprehensive analysis of early to late medieval settlement, land use, economics and population, bringing together evidence drawn from archaeological excavations and surveys, historical geographical analysis and documentary and place-name study. It is intended to be...

The Story of Durham traces the evolution of a city that medieval writers likened to Jerusalem, which Ruskin termed one of the wonders of the world, and which Pevsner, more modestly, called one of the architectural experiences of Europe.To Bill Bryson, meanwhile, Durham appeared 'a perfect little city' with 'the best cathedral on planet Earth'. The city is a physical manifestation of a significant event in our history: the Romanesque cathedral and castle to...

From awe-inspiring Norman castles, to the skyscrapers of today, Simon Thurley explores how the architecture of this small island influenced the world.The Building of England puts into context the significance of a country’s architectural history and unearths how it is inextricably linked to the cultural past – and present.Saxon, Tudor, Georgian, Regency, even Victorian and Edwardian are all well-recognised architectural styles, displaying the influence of the events that ma...

Sir Robert Atkyns's Ancient and Present State of Glostershire, which appeared in 1712, was the first published survey of the county. Alan Pilbeam's Gloucestershire 300 Years Ago is written to celebrate Atkyns's achievement and to present his information in a more accessible form. Atkyns's work is critically assessed with reference to other sources and used as a basis for comparison with today's landscape. Fully illustrated in both colour and black and white, it includes a gazetteer of plac...

Churches are Britain’s most completely surviving class of historic monument. They are also usually the oldest buildings within their settlements. As such, these structures, from parish church to cathedral, from medieval to Georgian, are a huge architectural and archaeological resource. The last couple of decades have witnessed an unprecedented upsurge of public interest in the historic environment, and the growth of the tourism and ‘heritage’ industries has focused new attention on churche...

The Cotswolds is a region in the west of England famed for its wonderful scenery and gorgeous villages. This book is out of the ordinary because it describes in depth a selection of the most interesting places, many of which are unknown except to the conoscenti. Written by a long time resident and acknowledged expert in the area, it is the only written companion you need if you really want to understand the history and significance of a place that is easily accessible from London and which...

In 1666 London was devastated by the Great Fire, which gutted over 13,000 houses, over eighty parish churches and St Paul’s Cathedral. Robert Wynn Jones has set out to discover the original structures and streets that survived the Great Fire and can still be seen today. This book maps, describes and illustrates what remains of the City of the Black Death, the Peasants’ Revolt, the Reformation, the Civil War, and the Great Plague; the City of Chaucer and Shakespeare and Pepys. Discover the ...

The city of Norwich is renowned for its Norman castle, its cathedral and flint city walls, parts of which are still visible today. It is, and was, a ‘Fine City’, the largest walled town in England during the Middle Ages, a rich provincial city still with many well-preserved medieval buildings and, reputedly, once having a church for every week and a pub for every day of the year! Originally published in 1994, this newly revised and updated edition presents an overview of the history and de...