Gloucestershire 1 – The Cotswolds (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) Hardcover – 1 Jan. 1999

An excellent update of the previous edition, which I also have. I have owned a complete set of Pevsners for England and Wales for some time, but have bought several of these updated editions for local counties which I visit regularly. Expensive, but worth every penny.

Second hand item as described and promptly delivered

Yet another great addition to the modern Pevsners! We can't wait to get the rest of the modern editions when funds allow.

purchased for next door neighbour - he appreciated it as it replaced on that was outdated

Much improved update which is part of the excellent Pevsner guide series. More comprehensive than previous imprint, with improved illustrations and more extensive property details. Afraid these improvements mean it won't fit in the pocket, but that's the only downside.

This is a review of the 1999/2000 edition by Alan Brooks of David Verey’s original volume of 1970. In his foreword, Brooks writes that his edition “represents a complete revision.” The boundary between the two Gloucestershire county volumes has been brought down from “the crest of the Cotswold escarpment … to include all those places immediately at the foot.” However much this was designed to incorporate the scarp’s foot into the main body, there are still anomalies. For instance, Cleeve Hill is included in this volume but Southam is not; of large urban areas, Cirencester and Stroud are in, but Cheltenham is not.In his foreword, Brooks notes that Pevsner only had “limited involvement” in Verey’s original two volumes. Now, “Extensive original research has enabled me greatly to increase the scope of the book, much extending the range of buildings described, and including significant recent additions and alterations. As a result the volume has been considerably expanded in size, and the text thoroughly revised and often rewritten.” Paying tribute to David Verey, Brooks nevertheless points out that his text still forms the basis of the new edition.In the new one-hundred-plus-page introduction Brooks provides in his extensive surveys a detailed overview of Cotswolds architecture. For example, we learn of the prevalence of thirteenth-century stone bellcotes on the region’s churches, but that the later Decorated style “is little represented”. Of secular architecture, he notes “There are very few castles on the Cotswolds” and that “Medieval town building is just as elusive as its rural counterpart.” There are medieval barns and a few houses here and there but no bridges survive. Instead it is the post-Reformation “C16-C17 Cotswold manor house” that has become “a staple of the English picturesque”, but notably these are devoid of rich ornament.Industrial architecture receives its due in the survey as does the Victorian church. But it was “the Arts-and-Crafts movement [that] was of particular importance to the Gloucestershire Cotswolds in the early C20.” Alas – or thankfully? – “Remarkably little Cotswolds architecture from after the Second World War is worth singling out.” Brooks is assisted in his surveys by Arthur Price (geology & building materials); Timothy Darvill (prehistory); Neil Holbrook (Roman); Carolyn Heighway (Anglo-Saxon); and Michael Hill (smaller domestic architecture). Brooks mysteriously claims the county has “the highest ground in the S[outh] of England” at Cleeve Hill, which is 340 metres above sea-level. (High Willhays on Dartmoor in Devon is the highest at 610 metres.)One welcome feature of both the Gloucestershire volumes is that many (most?) parish and town entries receive their own short introductory essay before the buildings themselves are described and the perambulations begin. These introductions vary from the single line – “A remote hamlet on the Cotswold Edge, with splendid views NW” (Farmcote) – to (only) four lengthy paragraphs (Cirencester).The volume comes with the usual set of plates sited in the centre of the book. These total 129 and are all in monochrome, unlike Brooks’s 2002 revision of Verey’s second Gloucestershire volume where the plates are mostly in colour. There is the standard twenty-four page architectural glossary as well as the usual indices of artists, patrons, and places.It is now standard practice for me to buy the local Pevsner whenever I spend some time in a county. Brooks’s volume on the Gloucestershire Cotswolds was of immense use to me and follows the very high standards of its fellows.

A very detailed book. It will be handy locally and when on holiday for places to look out for!

A little pricey but very thorough