Discovering cottage architecture

Country cottages have an almost universal appeal. Whether nestling in a Sussex garden or astride a Pennine hillside, whether clustered in a fishing village or round a Cotswold green, cottages attract attention and create delight. This book will aid the recognition, understanding and historical interpretation of the wealth of surviving cottages in England and Wales. Their changing forms, quality and methods of building are explained and illustrated, along with the great range of regional differences. Architectural aspects are brought into touch with social and economic ones, such as the identity, motives and practices of people who once provided and occupied cottages. The evolution of the subject is followed from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (when the oldest survivors were built), through a Georgian and Victorian heyday, to eventual decline before the First World War. This book is completed by guidance on how to record and study the subject further. About the author Christopher Powell studied architecture at the University of Bristol. He is currently joint editor of Construction History, the journal of the Construction History Society.