First published in 1983, Farm Buildings gives a fascinating account of what has been happening in and around farm buildings since medieval times, and describes their structure, their function and their style. This is followed by a long section in which sixty-eight representative types of Welsh and English farm buildings are commented on by the author and illustrated by John Penoyre. John Woodforde emphasizes that just as people increasingly enjoy looking at old farm buildings, so too some farmers are coming to appreciate them with a new eye, noting that they possess in their yards assets whose value is greater in several ways than they used to think. This book will be of interest to students of architecture, history and agriculture.

First published in 1978, Georgian Houses for All describes how little Gregorian houses came into being and how the original inhabitants used them. Gregorian houses at their smallest and simplest can be seen everywhere in the British Isles – detached, semi-detached and joined together in terraces. There are probably still over a million of them, built during a period of 130 years without the direct aid of architects. John Woodforde points out that an instinctive wish for a symmetrical front seems to be shown by young children’s drawings of houses, these being generally balanced and orderly. The Georgians’ love of symmetry, marked in their way of hanging pictures, was part of a desire for private order amongst public disorder, a desire to have one small sphere in which nature was fully controlled. John Woodforde reminds us that, in the present-day return to terrace-house building, the Georgian version remains a valuable guide. The book will be of interest to students of architecture, urban planning, and history.

This unique description of over 230 archive postcards and photographs of Ryde and its environs evocatively captures the vibrant history of this seaside town over the last century. Once considered to be the main gateway to the Isle of Wight, Ryde had several photographers residing locally, who were often on the sport to record an event, celebration or disaster when it occurred, as well as the changing fashions, businesses, shops and transport, including the trams which took day visitors and holiday makers alike along the esplanade and pier, the latter long-gone. Compiled from the collection held by Lynette Archer and John Woodford of the Isle of Wight Picture Postcard Collectors Club, this book provides an insight into everyday life in and around Ryde as it once was, from timeless views of the sea front to snapshots of urban streets and buildings, particularly the local hotels which vied with each other for custom during the summer months.

The old cottages of Britain are amongst the country's best-loved treasures. Threatened on all sides - whether by the dilapidation of woodworm and dry-rot or the schemes of planners and developers - they are fiercely protected by all those who live in (or simply dream of living in) a country cottage. Yet few have any idea about what life in a cottage was really like both within and outside our living memory."The Truth About Cottages" is a small classic - in the words of the "Sunday Times", 'required reading for cottage addicts; true scholarship, engrossing history and a real eye-opener for romantics.' It tells the remarkable story of cottage life since the seventeenth century, often using the words of the people who built the cottages or lived in them. For example, there is the instance of the horse that shared a nineteenth-century, single-room cottage with its twelve human inhabitants, as well as the documented tribulations of rural labourers and barefoot urban dwellers alike, whose homes were as unsanitary and cold as they were picturesque. The book goes further, to provide an informative illustrated guide to the fifty main types of cottage, dating from the fifteenth century. It remains the ideal companion for explorers of these gems.