From awe-inspiring Norman castles, to the skyscrapers of today, Simon Thurley explores how the architecture of this small island influenced the world.

A radical rethinking of the Anglo-Saxon world that draws on the latest archaeological discoveries This beautifully illustrated book draws on the latest archaeological discoveries to present a radical reappraisal of the Anglo-Saxon built environment and its inhabitants. John Blair, one of the world's leading experts on this transformative era in England's early history, explains the origins of towns, manor houses, and castles in a completely new way, and sheds new light on the important functions of buildings and settlements in shaping people's lives during the age of the Venerable Bede and King Alfred. Building Anglo-Saxon England demonstrates how hundreds of recent excavations enable us to grasp for the first time how regionally diverse the built environment of the Anglo-Saxons truly was. Blair identifies a zone of eastern England with access to the North Sea whose economy, prosperity, and timber buildings had more in common with the Low Countries and Scandinavia than the rest of England. The origins of villages and their field systems emerge with a new clarity, as does the royal administrative organization of the kingdom of Mercia, which dominated central England for two centuries. Featuring a wealth of color illustrations throughout, Building Anglo-Saxon England explores how the natural landscape was modified to accommodate human activity, and how many settlements--secular and religious—were laid out with geometrical precision by specialist surveyors. The book also shows how the Anglo-Saxon love of elegant and intricate decoration is reflected in the construction of the living environment, which in some ways was more sophisticated than it would become after the Norman Conquest.

"John Cosin (1595-1672) was a leading cleric in seventeenth-century England who rode the changing tides of preference under James I and Charles I, exile during the Interregnum, becoming Bishop of Durham at the Restoration. Inspired by the architecture of Dr. Caius at his undergraduate college in Cambridge, Cosin was encouraged to value the architecture of the English Church by his patron Richard Neile. Under Bishop Neile, Cosin became a prebend of Durham Cathedral and Rector of Brancepeth in the Bishopric of Durham during the 1620s, as well as Master of Peterhouse and Vice Chancellor at Cambridge University during the 1630s. Cosin spent the years 1643 to 1659 in exile in Paris before returning to become Bishop of Durham in 1660 till his death in 1672. Cosin was actively involved in church architecture, fulfilling the "beauty of holiness" agenda of the English Arminian clergy, from the 1620s through to the 1670s."--

This standard work on building in England, long unavailable, has now been reissued. It provides a compendious account, firmly grounded in contemporary documentary evidence of architecture and music practice until the mid-sixteenth century. It examines the organization and economics of the building trade, its raw materials and their sources, the tools and techniques of the many and diverse workers involved, and the decoration of the finished structures. Original documents, including building and craftsmen's contracts, are reprinted in the Appendices, making this an invaluable source for anyone interested in medieval architecture.

Shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize A radical rethinking of the Anglo-Saxon world that draws on the latest archaeological discoveries This beautifully illustrated book draws on the latest archaeological discoveries to present a radical reappraisal of the Anglo-Saxon built environment and its inhabitants. John Blair, one of the world's leading experts on this transformative era in England's early history, explains the origins of towns, manor houses, and castles in a completely new way, and sheds new light on the important functions of buildings and settlements in shaping people's lives during the age of the Venerable Bede and King Alfred. Building Anglo-Saxon England demonstrates how hundreds of recent excavations enable us to grasp for the first time how regionally diverse the built environment of the Anglo-Saxons truly was. Blair identifies a zone of eastern England with access to the North Sea whose economy, prosperity, and timber buildings had more in common with the Low Countries and Scandinavia than the rest of England. The origins of villages and their field systems emerge with a new clarity, as does the royal administrative organization of the kingdom of Mercia, which dominated central England for two centuries. Featuring a wealth of color illustrations throughout, Building Anglo-Saxon England explores how the natural landscape was modified to accommodate human activity, and how many settlements--secular and religious—were laid out with geometrical precision by specialist surveyors. The book also shows how the Anglo-Saxon love of elegant and intricate decoration is reflected in the construction of the living environment, which in some ways was more sophisticated than it would become after the Norman Conquest.

An astonishing survey of the use of fashion and textiles as powerful propaganda tools in the Second World War era

Investigates the origins of building control in England and Wales, tracing the evolution of the system through various Acts of Parliament, regulations and bye-laws. This book also looks at social and political issues which influenced the development of building control.