Contributed by Anne Allsopp
Last Friday, 16 November, saw the launch at Willington Village Hall of this delightful collection of sketches.
The Bedfordshire Historical Record Society now owns the copyright to the excellent Bedfordshire Magazine which ceased publication in 1999. Between Summer 1947 and Spring 1998, Bernard West contributed sketchbook drawings for all but two of the quarterly issues. Gordon Vowles, a member of the BHRS and personal friend of Bernard West, has collected a selection of his sketches for publication in this delightful book.
Bernard West was a practising architect and his interests included history as well as archaeology, conservation and natural history. He ‘waged an unrelenting campaign for good design and sympathetic preservation’. The sketches are accompanied by commentaries, many of which reflect his contempt for the lack of sensitive planning over the years.
When he died, in January 2006, the local history group in his home village of Willington decided that something should be done to commemorate Bernard West’s contribution to recording the history of the county and, with the support of the BHRS, this book was published. Gordon Vowles has aimed to produce a ‘representative spread’ of locations throughout the county in this selection.
This excellent book will enable a wider audience to appreciate the artistic skill of Bernard West and also the architectural and rural treasures of Bedfordshire.
Bernard West’s Bedfordshire: a selection of his Sketch-books from the Bedfordshire Magazine 1947-98, edited by Gordon Vowles and published by The Book Castle, Dunstable, LU5 4RU in November 2007 at £12.99 http://www.book-castle.co.uk/
See other reviews of this book at
http://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/todays-choice/Sketches-of-Bedfordshire.3898969.jp
http://www.mk-news.co.uk/bedsonsunday-leisure-books/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=240392
http://www.balhs.org.uk/bookreviews.htm
Showing posts with label Architecture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Architecture. Show all posts
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
Monday, 12 November 2007
Two new links
Today I’ve added two Links: one to the Archaeological Data Service (ADS) and the second to the Vernacular Architecture Group (VAG), both good sources for Bedfordshire landscape and buildings.
VAG was formed in 1952 for the study of traditional buildings, originally those of the British Isles but now it reflects international interests. Members are ‘involved in all aspects of the recording and study of vernacular buildings’. The website has information about conferences, its publications and links to databases. VAG’s cruck buildings and dendrochronology databases are held on the Archaeology Data Service website (ADS).
ADS is a MUST for all Bedfordshire historians. It brings together research from English Heritage, National Monuments Record, Bedfordshire County Council and many more. There’s much too much to even try to describe its scope. A crude search of the ADS Online Catalogue for Bedfordshire found more than 3000 hits, ranging from palaeolithic flakes to Royal Observer Corps monitoring posts of the Cold War period. I explored ADS for places that I’m interested in and discovered that Stanbridge in the south of the county is described as a shrunken medieval or post-medieval village and that the Fonterraultine priory of Grovebury may not have been fully established.
There’s plenty of opportunity in both these sites for anyone with Bedfordshire interests or wishing to put the local in a regional or national context.
Barbara Tearle
VAG was formed in 1952 for the study of traditional buildings, originally those of the British Isles but now it reflects international interests. Members are ‘involved in all aspects of the recording and study of vernacular buildings’. The website has information about conferences, its publications and links to databases. VAG’s cruck buildings and dendrochronology databases are held on the Archaeology Data Service website (ADS).
ADS is a MUST for all Bedfordshire historians. It brings together research from English Heritage, National Monuments Record, Bedfordshire County Council and many more. There’s much too much to even try to describe its scope. A crude search of the ADS Online Catalogue for Bedfordshire found more than 3000 hits, ranging from palaeolithic flakes to Royal Observer Corps monitoring posts of the Cold War period. I explored ADS for places that I’m interested in and discovered that Stanbridge in the south of the county is described as a shrunken medieval or post-medieval village and that the Fonterraultine priory of Grovebury may not have been fully established.
There’s plenty of opportunity in both these sites for anyone with Bedfordshire interests or wishing to put the local in a regional or national context.
Barbara Tearle
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