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Abstract
The historic county of Yorkshire has a wealth of vernacular buildings, studied for over a century. The focus of study and the means by which it has been carried out have changed over this period and the opportunity exists to review this history and indicate how the subject might develop in the next years, particularly in relation to the fuller exploitation of existing records and the way in which future research might be structured. The use of architectural evidence for the examination of changing types of house is well established, but less well recognised is its potential to not only illustrate wider historical trends but also to modify, refine or counter conclusions drawn from other sources.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful for information, clarification and comments on early drafts of this article provided by Katie McAdam, Arnold Pacey, David Cant, Adrian Green, Ian Pattison, George Sheeran, David Hunter, Rebecca Lane, Margaret Faull, Zak Nellist, Adam Menuge, Martin Roberts and Paul Barnwell.
Notes
1 This article has been written by the author of one of the major studies of the county’s vernacular architecture (Giles, Rural Houses) and as a result contains a bias towards the author’s area of greatest knowledge, that is, West Yorkshire. It is hoped, however, that discussion of issues related to this part has relevance for the study of the county as a whole.
2 See, for example, Addy, ‘Stannington Hall’; Kendall, ‘Wood Lane Hall’; and Sutcliffe 1913.
3 Ambler, Old Halls and Manor Houses, now available online: https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/The_Old_Halls_and_Manor_Houses_of_Yorkshire_(1913)_by_Louis_Ambler.
4 Sargent, ‘RCHME, 1908–1998’, 59, 60, 67.
6 A brief history of listing is available online at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/about-the-list.
7 Hoskins, ‘Rebuilding of Rural England’, 44–59.
8 Hoskins, ‘Rebuilding of Rural England’, 44.
10 RCHME, Monuments Threatened or Destroyed. The Yorkshire buildings are described in pp. 67–72.
11 Mercer, English Vernacular Houses, Chairman’s Preface, xvii.
13 Walton, Early Timbered Buildings.
14 See, for example, Gilks, ‘Boothtown Hall’.
15 Atkinson and McDowell, ‘Aisled Houses’.
16 This early exercise in rescue is summarised in Brears, Buildings of Tudor and Stuart Wakefield.
17 Hayes and Rutter, Cruck-Framed Buildings.
18 Stell, ‘Vernacular Architecture’; Pacey, ‘Elland Buildings’; Westerdale, ‘Houses of Shibden Dale’; Sheeran, ‘Pre-industrial Houses.’ Stell published his thesis in summary form in Stell, ‘Pennine Houses’; and Sheeran summarised his work in Sheeran, Good Houses Built of Stone.
19 The Pennine Horizons Digital Archive is in the process of negotiation with Heritage Trust for the North West for the digitisation of this collection.
20 Barley, English Farmhouse and Cottage; Mercer, English Vernacular Houses; Brunskill, Illustrated Handbook of Vernacular Architecture. An example of the results of a course run by the Workers’ Education Association is Jennings, Pennine Valley, which contains a brief account of local yeoman-clothier houses.
21 Hutton, ‘Timber-framed Houses’; Harrison and Hutton, Vernacular Houses.
22 Harrison and Hutton, Vernacular Houses, v.
23 RCHME, Houses of the North York Moors.
25 Faull and Moorhouse, West Yorkshire, III, 734–5 and plates XA, XIA and XIB. Some of the buildings described in Ryder, Timber-framed Buildings, were recorded in advance of demolition or alteration.
26 Faull and Moorhouse, West Yorkshire, I, xv.
27 Ryder, Timber-framed Buildings. The introduction (pp. 2–6) contains an interesting and useful description of the development of the study of vernacular buildings in South Yorkshire.
28 Faull and Moorhouse, West Yorkshire.
29 Faull and Moorhouse, West Yorkshire, 734–5, 801–21.
30 The documentary research was summarised in Thornes, West Yorkshire.
31 Mercer, English Vernacular Houses, was a synthesis of the evidence of hundreds of buildings recorded under this power and included a significant discussion of West Yorkshire houses: see especially pp. 14–16 and gazetteer, pp. 219–27.
32 Giles, Rural Houses; Caffyn, Workers’ Housing. The fruitful collaboration continued with a further jointly-funded survey of the architecture of the historic county of Yorkshire’s textile mills, under severe threat by the 1980s: Giles and Goodall, Yorkshire Textile Mills.
33 Ryder, Timber-framed Buildings; Giles, Rural Houses; RCHME, Houses of the North York Moors; Caffyn, Workers’ Housing.
35 Ryder, Saxon Churches; Ryder, Medieval Churches; Giles and Goodall, Yorkshire Textile Mills.
36 The results of this project, originally known as the Image of England project, are now combined with the list descriptions in the National Heritage list for England, available online: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/about-the-list.
38 The last major thematic survey of vernacular houses undertaken by the Royal Commission was that in Kent in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with a team of two investigators and a graphics officer. This resulted in records of 450 buildings and in the three-volume publication on medieval houses in the county: Pearson, Medieval Houses of Kent; Barnwell and Adams, The House Within; Pearson, Barnwell and Adams, Gazetteer of Medieval Houses in Kent.
39 A relatively recent exception to the rule, although not one concerned with Yorkshire, is Jessop, Alston Moor.
40 Another case of central funding for local effort in this programme resulted in the publication of Baker, Hughes and Morriss, Houses of Hereford.
41 Taylor, Manningham.
42 An example of a Historic England research report on a Yorkshire building is that on Nappa Hall in Wensleydale, available online at: https://research.historicengland.org.uk/Report.aspx?i=15174&ru=%2fResults.aspx%3fp%3d1%26n%3d10%26t%3dnappa%26ns%3d1.
43 An example of an externally commissioned Historic England Research Report is that on Broadbottom, Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, available online at: https://research.historicengland.org.uk/Report.aspx?i=16027&ru=%2fResults.aspx%3fp%3d1%26n%3d10%26t%3dbroadbottom%26ns%3d1.
44 Lane, Understanding Historic Buildings, available at: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/understanding-historic-buildings.
46 https://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2019/10/traditionalfarmbuildingsurvey-yorkshire-dales.pdf; Denyer, Traditional Buildings.
47 See, for example, Green, ‘Houses and Households’, and Rimmer, ‘Small Houses’. For dendrochronology, see http://www.tree-ringdating.co.uk/introduction.php: the unit is now an independent consultancy.
48 The University of York runs a one- to three-year MA Historic buildings course: https://www.york.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-taught/courses/ma-historic-buildings. The University of Cambridge Faculty of Architecture and History of Art offers a two-year Mst course in Building History with a strong emphasis on the recording and interpretation of buildings of different types: https://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/mst-building-history-1. A postgraduate certificate is offered at the University of Oxford Department of Continuing Education: https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/about/postgraduate-certificate-in-architectural-history.
49 Lane, Understanding Historic Buildings, 25–7.
50 Carson and Lounsbury, Chesapeake House. The introduction (pp. 1–9) explains the approach to recording by the Foundation for both conservation purposes and the writing of social history. An accessible guide to the recording of external and internal features of a building is Hall, Period House Fixtures and Fittings.
51 Armstrong and Pacey, ‘Cruck Buildings’.
52 Johnson, Housing Culture. The introduction, pp. 9–10, suggests that the correlation between houses and wealth is not straightforward.
53 RCHME 1986, 121–4.
54 Hey et al, Yorkshire West Riding Hearth Tax, ‘Wealth distribution, the Hearth Tax and Housing’, 61–79.
55 RCHME 1986, 124.
56 Rogers, Daniel Defoe, 483, 490–6, 500–4.
57 The inventory evidence for textiles production is summarised in Giles, Rural Houses, 127–30.
58 Atkinson, Eighteenth Century Woollen and Worsted Trade, 1.
59 Giles, Rural Houses, 128–9, 199.
60 Giles, Rural Houses, 152–5; RCHME, Houses of the North York Moors, 63–72. The relationship between two types of ‘tripartite’ houses, the longhouse of the North York Moors and the ‘clothier houses’ of the West Yorkshire Pennines, is not clear. Very few possible longhouse buildings have been identified in West Yorkshire: see Giles, Rural Houses, 182–3, and Pacey, Cruck Buildings in Craven, 12, 14.
61 A good example of a surviving early house in Halifax is Willow Hall, Skircoat, surrounded by modern housing.
62 The role of Leeds merchants is described in Wilson, Gentlemen Merchants.
63 Johnson, Housing Culture. The introduction (pp. 1–16) contains an excellent summary of the development of the study of vernacular architecture. The relationship between structural forms in timber buildings and ecological factors is suggested in Barnwell, ‘Trees and Crucks’.
64 Gardiner, ‘Archaeological Approach’.
65 The second edition volumes of the Buildings of England series contain brief essays on vernacular architecture: for the East Riding, see Pevsner and Neave, Buildings of England.
66 A good example of an established national context is that related to cruck construction: see Alcock, Barnwell and Cherry, Cruck Building. Local contributions to this national picture include Armstrong and Pacey, ‘Cruck Buildings’; Pacey, Cruck Buildings in Craven.
67 The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority maintains a website with useful discussion of agricultural buildings: http://www.outofoblivion.org.uk/barns.asp. For Pennine aisled barns, see Michelmore, ‘Preliminary Typology’.
68 Pacey, Cruck Buildings in Craven, 21.
69 The corporate research strategy and agenda are set out in documents available online: see, for example, https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/he-research-agenda.
70 Kingsbury, ‘Investigation into Vernacular Origins’.
72 For West Yorkshire, see https://www.wyjs.org.uk/media/1274/historic-buildings.pdf; for South Yorkshire, see in prep. South Yorkshire Archaeological Research Framework draft documents: South Yorkshire Archaeology Service/Historic England.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Colum Giles
Colum Giles worked for the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England and later for English Heritage. His publications include monographs on the rural houses of West Yorkshire, Yorkshire textile mills and English farmsteads. He is a member of the Yorkshire Vernacular Buildings Study Group.