Cumbria
The Pevsner Guide to Cumbria by Matthew Hyde has been awarded the The Michael Berry Prize for Guides, Walks and Places in the Lakeland Book of the Year competition.
The winners in a number of different categories were revealed at a special literary luncheon on Tuesday at Armathwaite Hall Country House and Spa at Bassenthwaite near Keswick. The judging panel of the annual competition is headed up by Hunter Davies, a Cumbrian writer and prolific biographer, along with broadcaster Fiona Armstrong, Cumbrian author Kathleen Jones of Appleby, and writer and broadcaster Eric Robson, of Wasdale.
Chair of the judges, Hunter Davies commented that the competition this year was fiercer than ever, with a large number of well written and interesting books across a broad spectrum of subject matter.
Matthew Hyde’s fully revised volume of Cumbria, which is part of the acclaimed Pevsner Architectural Guides Series, brings together the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland with the old Furness division of Lancashire, in a comprehensive architectural guide to one of England’s most varied and rewarding regions. At its heart is the Lake District, where the well-loved vernacular architecture is overlaid by centuries of buildings, Georgian to modern, that respond in diverse ways to the magnificent landscape. The less familiar areas outside the National Park have an equal fascination, with numerous historic towns, spectacular industrial monuments, and distinctive traditions of church-building and fortified great houses. Fine Victorian and Arts-and-Crafts architecture can be found throughout, much of it published in this book for the first time.
Page spreads from the Pevsner Guide to Cumbria
About the Pevsner Architectural Guides
Yale publish a wide range of Architecture titles, but among the most well-known and acclaimed are the Pevsner Guides, which were begun in 1951 by the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (1902-83) with the aim of providing an up-to-date portable guide to the most significant buildings in every part of the country, suitable for both general reader and specialist. The success of the volumes covering England led to the extension of the series to Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Each volume provides an introductory overview of the architecture of the area, followed by a descriptive gazetteer arranged alphabetically by place. Whilst cathedrals and their furnishings, great country houses and their parks form the grand set pieces, the books demonstrate the enjoyable diversity of architecture in the British Isles in accounts of rural churches and farmsteads, Victorian public buildings and industrial monuments. A continuing programme of new editions at Yale London keeps the series up-to-date with new information on older buildings and recent architecture while maintaining the tradition of Pevsner’s own succinct accounts. Each book has over 100 photographs, mostly specially commissioned, numerous maps and plans, a glossary and indexes.
The Pevsner series is organised into England, Scotland Wales and Ireland. The series also includes paperback City Guides, as well as the acclaimed Pevsner Architectural Glossary. Click on the links below to view the complete series:
• Buildings of England
• Buildings of Scotland
• Buildings of Wales
• Buildings of Ireland
• Pevsner City Guides
Related Links
Read the full news story at the New Writing Cumbria website
Read about the awards at the Writing Cumbria website
