Traditional Domestic Architecture Of The Banbury Region

The pivotal position of the Oxford region in the geological and therefore building history of England is of fundamental importance to the study of traditional construction. Oxford occupies a central position on the ancient route between Northampton and Southampton and on the east - west road between London, The West Country, Wales and Ireland. For this reason, unusually for vernacular architecture, the buildings of the region were subject to a wide range of influences. This book, the fruit of twenty years research, provides an account of vernacular architecture in the Oxford region from Anglo-Saxon times to the 19th century. It begins with a discussion of methods and procedures followed by a description of building materials, stone, brick, slate and thatch. This serves as an introduction to the heart of the book, eleven chapters dealing with surveys of cruck buildings, manorial and moated sites, town houses with particular emphasis on Abingdon, and houses in the countryside from farmhouses to cottages. There are then chapters on fire hazards, public houses and public buildings. Several appendices are devoted to wall paintings, ferramenta, apotropaic marks, carpentry details, secrets under the floorboards, fireplaces, staircases and windows. The book is richly and profusely illustrated with over 500 illustrations, photographs, maps, and a particular strength, a large number of drawings of architectural details and sketch perspectives.

Exploration of the relationship between the design of housing and domestic routine.

Over 160 photographs, drawings, and maps provide examples of the four traditional Ozark house types and reveal the unity of a distinctive Arkansas culture that bears identity with all hill peoples. Of importance to architects, folklorists, cultural historians, and anyone interested in the Ozarks, this fascinating examination of the Ozark house is a way toward understanding the mind of the inhabitants and their entire way of life.

Rural England's Great Rebuilding of 1570-1640, first identified by W.G. Hoskins in 1953, has been vigorously debated ever since. Some critics have re-dated it on a regional basis. Still more have seen Great Rebuildings around every corner, causing them to dismiss Hoskins's thesis. In this first full-length study of the rebuilding phenomenon, Colin Platt, an accomplished architectural and social historian, addresses these issues and presents a persuasive fresh assessment of the legacy of this revolution in housing design. Although accepting Hoskins's definition of a first Great Rebuilding, starting with the 1570s and ending in the devastations of the Civil War, the author argues convincingly for a more influential "second" Great Rebuilding after peace had returned.; In examining architectural change both in the buildings themselves and through the writings of discerning contemporaries, today's family house, whether in town or country, is shown to owe almost nothing to the Middle Ages. Instead, its origins lie in the increasingly sophisticated world of the Tudor and Jacobean courts, in the refined taste of returned travellers, and in a growing popular demand for personal privacy, unobtainable in houses of medieval plan.; This fascinating and challenging study of changing tastes marks an important contribution to our understanding of Tudor and Stuart society and as such will not only be welcomed by students and historians of early modern England but by the interested general reader.