Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales

This may, perhaps, seem a rather staid choice for a celebration of books for Libraries Week (given the plethora of wonderful, exotic, choices for such an occasion) but in working life this book serves as an invaluable tool on an almost daily basis.

First compiled by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner in the 1940s, the original volumes, restricted to the Buildings of England only, were published between 1951 and 1974. Subsequently extended to cover Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, the first Wales volume, on Powys (Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire, and Breconshire), was published in 1979. Variously edited, volumes on Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, Clwyd (Denbighshire and Flintshire), Glamorgan, Gwent ~ Monmouthshire, Gwynedd, Pembrokeshire followed between that date and 2009; with a larger format of the original Powys volume being published in 2013.

The Buildings of Wales complement the entries on the Royal Commission’s site and catalogue database, Coflein. Although focused to a large extent on what may be seen now as, perhaps rather outmoded concepts of, ‘important’ or ‘significant’ buildings, the volumes do provide a run through, and wider context, to a village, town, or area. The volumes comprise (broadly) a county introduction; discussions of historical backgrounds by period; chapters on monuments, types of buildings, vernacular architecture, etc.; followed by a gazetteer of sites/properties; illustrated with central pages of colour images; and indexed by peoples and places.

Lynne Moore

Even though our library is presently closed you can go on a virtual tour and browse the shelves, or search our library catalogue.

06/10/2020