English Buildings

The ‘Theophrastus effect’ It happens every now and then: you’re walking round a town or district that’s unfamiliar to you, and you notice so...

Pebbles and nodules Regions said to be poor in building stone (or far enough away from good stone to make transport prohibitively expensive ...

  Local speciality Stoke pots, Nottingham lace, Luton hats. In years gone by, many English towns became specialist centres of manufacturing....

An enduring tradition To Malvern, to browse in the secondhand bookshops, to look around, and to pay a visit to the Priory. It’s a terrific b...

Forty years on Exactly forty years ago today, the Resident Wise Woman and I were married in St Mary's, Sudeley. I have written about my ...

Out of the window, on to the track As my Oxford to London Marylebone train approached Princes Risborough, I admired the impressive signal b...

  A web of wood Having posted about Dunster’s charming and well preserved dovecote the other week, I thought it might be interesting to tak...