C O N T E X T 1 1 9 : M A Y 2 0 1 1 43 features of historic interest. In a few cases ground floor plans are given and many entries are illustrated by excellent colour photographs. The results of the research undertaken for theYorkshire Regional Inventory have been ably edited by David Gamston to produce this well-written and beautifully laid out and illustrated little book. It will appeal both to those with a special interest in pub history and conservation, and to all who merely seek to enjoy the unique ambience of a traditional pub. At its modest price, it can certainly be recommended. Peter Fisher, a retired conservation officer, contributed to A Manifesto for Pub Preservation. Senses of place Building Scotland: celebrating Scotland’s traditional building materials Edited by Moses Jenkins; foreword by Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland, John Donald in association with Historic Scotland, 2010, 208pp, ISBN 978 0 859767 10 1, £25 Eschewing the conventional historicist approach to building typologies and architectural periods and styles, Building Scotland is a celebration of the materials that distinguish Scotland’s sense of place, including their properties, regional variations, and socio-economic stories behind their sourcing and use over time. Building Scotland thus rejoices both in the labour that cultivated and extracted raw materials from the land, as well as the generations of craft skills that continue to shape the identity of Scotland’s built environment. Divided into 14 chapters, each devoted to an individual material and written by an authority in their field, Building Scotland is unusual in providing a balanced treatment to its diverse subjects. These embrace the obvious – such as Ingval Maxwell’s chapter on stone and Neil Grieve’s on slate – and the less so – such as Chris Macgregor’s on earth and Bruce Walker’s on clay. The editor, Moses Jenkins, is a senior technical officer in Historic Scotland’s Technical Conservation Group. His chapter focuses on brick, one of Scotland’s less well recognised building materials, not least because of its frequent concealment by harling. Jenkins describes brick as ‘an ancient and integral part of our building tradition’. He takes us through the 2000-year history of the material’s recorded use from the time of the Roman invasion, to the period of expansion of manufacture and utilisation in the industrial period, and to its apogee as a facing and decorative material in the Templeton Carpet Factory on Glasgow Green – a veritable extravaganza of polychromatic glazed brickwork. The use of pantiles as a roofing material in Scotland resulted from trade links rather than invasion. The chapter by Stuart Eydmann (convenor, IHBC Scottish branch) separates the myths from the facts behind their introduction from the Low Countries into Scotland’s east coast ports, not as cheap ballast but as a component of valued cargoes, and their earliest manufactory on Scottish soil in 1709. Eydmann informs us of the distinctive constructional techniques of pantiles, their versatility, and their assimilation into Scotland’s vernacular traditions as an essential complement to the longer standing traditions of sandstone and lime-washed harling. The pantile’s gain is thatch’s loss and, as Tim Holden writes in his chapter, ‘the demise of the thatched house has dramatically changed the character of Scottish settlements’. The survivals are rare and mostly remote – including in the Western and Northern Isles where, appropriately, weighted ropes and fishing nets are used for fixing. Another threatened tradition, but one that has seen creative revival in recent years through some highly skilled individuals and companies, is that of iron. Scotland once served as the foundry of the British Empire, also exporting its products and skills across the Russian Empire. David Mitchell, director of the Historic Scotland Conservation Group, takes us through the rise and fall of this once great industry, its processes and personalities, and the outstanding contribution it made to technological developments, including in prefabricated construction, as well as its multiple manifestations in ornamental work. Mitchell offers not so much a lament as a spur to the survival and recovery of this most important of Scottish traditions. The texts in Building Scotland are elegantly complemented by over a hundred vibrant and specially commissioned colour photographs by Sam Sills. The book is thus both informative and a feast for the eyes. Its balanced compass makes it a welcome addition to the literature on the materials and technologies in traditional buildings. Dennis Rodwell, consultant in cultural heritage and sustainable urban development Celebrating the craft Decorative Plasterwork in Great Britain Geoffrey Beard, Donhead Publishing Limited, 2011, 262pp, 160 b&w ills, hardback, ISBN 978 1 873394 91 5, £38 Donhead Publishing is well known to readers of Context for its enterprising crusade to bring back into print selected texts that have helped to shape our understanding of those traditional building practices of the past, and which in many cases have seen a revival in recent years under the broadening influence of current conservation practice. They have done us all a great service in republishing Geoffrey Beard’s scholarly book on decorative
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