40 C O N T E X T 9 0 : J U LY 2 0 0 5 Pevsner revisited The Buildings of England – Lancashire: Manchester and the South East Clare Hartwell, Matthew Hyde and Nikolaus Pevsner,Yale University Press, London, 2005, 748 pp, 86 b&w maps and illustrations, 126 colour photos, ISBN 0 300 10583 5, £29.95. Our sheer wealth of architecture old and new, lost, formerly disregarded or underregarded; our expanding understanding of place; the fruits of architectural history and social research have all led to a significant growth in the coverage of recent Pevsner County volumes. London has grown from four fairly slim volumes to six hefty ones that no longer slip easily into the pocket. Lancashire now grows from two volumes to three. The revised Manchester and the South-East, equally weighty, has appeared ahead of its old rival Liverpool (and the South West), with Lancashire (North) also in process of revision. This volume replaces one published all of 35 years ago. The expanded territory now extends northward to correspond to the invisible boundary of the abolished – but not much mourned – Greater Manchester Metropolitan Borough, but also the more characteristically defining half-circling enclosure of the Pennines. Pevsner admitted that the earlier edition covered the most difficult area he had ever needed to describe. The challenge of revision has been handsomely met by Clare Hartwell (who, it might be said, had a useful dummy run with her 2001 Manchester City Guide) and Matthew Hyde. They have tried to make sense of the intervening legacy of deindustrialisation, clearance, regeneration, redevelopment and transport infrastructure that has wrought massive changes to one of the most densely populated sub-regions in Europe. Manchester was already in transition when Pevsner visited in 1967. Cotton and heavy engineering were everywhere in decline but a counter-balancing civic pride was starting to assert itself. More than a century’s accumulation of grime from major public buildings and Victorian merchant princes’ Italianate palazzi was being cleaned away. Today, Pevsner would probably struggle to recognise this part of Lancashire at all. It would certainly not be one of the once characteristic views depicted by Lowry in 1924 (p4). The medieval buildings of Denton or Eccles that survived the industrial revolution – beautifully captured in colour by English Forthcoming publications from English Heritage Practical Building Conservation (new series) The original Practical Building Conservation series, written by John and Nicola Ashurst in five volumes (1988), has been one of the most successful conservation titles published by English Heritage. A completely new series, written by multiple authors under the editorial aegis of John Ashurst, is in preparation and due for publication by Ashgate Publishers in 2007.The new series will comprise ten volumes. In addition to the original titles on brick, stone, mortars, metals, glass and wood, there will be new titles on conservation principles and practices, building and environment, concrete, and roofing systems. English Heritage Research Transactions,Volume 10: Mortars Twenty years of mortar research conducted by English Heritage, from Hadrian’s Wall and the Smeaton Project through to more research on hydraulic lime mortars, will be published by James & James (Science Publishers) in the first half of 2006. John Fowler and the Invention of the ‘Country House Style’ Proceedings of a conference organised by English Heritage and the Traditional Paint Forum, London, 4 July 2001 (Donhead Publishers) Secular wall paintings in England, 16th–20th centuries: history and conservation Papers presented at the secular wall paintings conference series, 2004–2005, organised by UKIC with support from English Heritage Technical advice notes Environmental assessment for wall painting conservation Graffiti on historic buildings and monuments (revision) Identifying and sourcing stone for historic building repair Inspection, conservation, maintenance and repair of historic gravestones and monuments Timber decay Underside lead corrosion (revision) Stone slate roofing (revision) Recent publications Anticipating and responding to the discovery of wall paintings (Product code 51023) Flooding and historic buildings (Product code 50776) Hard copies are available free from English Heritage Customer Services on 0870 333 1181 or as pdf documents on the English Heritage website www.english-heritage.org.uk. Heritage photographer Keith Buck – would probably have been protected in 1967. But the fate of many of the sub-region’s fine Victorian buildings remained much less secure, despite the vigorous advocacy of the Victorian Society’s Manchester Group. In common with all Pevsners, the introduction begins with geology, and by implication, local building materials, archaeology and pre-industrial development. But Hartwell and Hyde (the very names evoke Victorian melodrama) come into their own in their examination of the 19th century. For a succinct overview of rapid urban expansion and the physical expression of its consequences, and of the achievements, influences and activities that still mark Manchester and its hinterland as great, these introductory pages probably can not be bettered. In the Gazetteer there are new insights aplenty.What is striking time and again is the expression of supreme confidence and enterprise that gave the area the Liverpool-Manchester railway of the Georgian era; the Town (not City) Hall and Ship Canal of the Victorian era; and even the airport, now Britain’s third biggest, in the modern era. A big, confident volume, for a big, confident city-region. Bob Kindred MBE
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