Houses are more than a shelter from the elements: they also
offer an unparalleled insight into the beliefs, ideas and
experiences of the people who built and lived in them.
In this engaging book, Matthew Johnson looks at the traditional
houses that still exist throughout the English countryside and
examines the lives of the ordinary people who once occupied them.
His wide-ranging narrative takes in the medieval hall and the
community it framed; the rebuilding and 'improvement'of houses in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and the rise of the
Georgian Order in both architecture and eighteenth century
culture.
This passionate book is animated by the conviction that old
houses are much more than just pretty tableaux of an idyllic,
unchanging rural England. Vernacular houses are compared to their
larger, 'polite' counterparts, and English houses are placed in the
wider context of the British Isles and the Atlantic world beyond.
The result is a dynamic, compelling account of the development of
houses in the English countryside and through this, a portrait of
changing patterns of social life from medieval to modern times.
Richly illustrated throughout with photographs and drawings,
this book will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the
significance of our built heritage and the historic landscape.
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