A talk on the buildings of England, County Durham, 2021. By Martin Roberts.
Thursday 8 October | 18:00-19:00 | £5 per ticket | The Story Learning Studio
The talk will cover the third edition revision of Sir Nikolaus Pevsner’s Buildings of England volume on County Durham. There will be a short introductory biography of Pevsner and his concept for, and execution of, the Buildings of England series. Planning the research, site visits and writing over the seven and half year period will be discussed, beside an examination of the new material added since the second edition (1983). There will be further thoughts on how best to keep the essence of Pevsner’s original writing, his bon mots and those of second edition author Elizabeth Williamson. Spaced between this illustrated discussion will be four, pacier photo-reviews of images from the book, covering the county architecture from the Anglo-Saxon period to the twenty-first century.
About the speaker
Martin Roberts was born in Chester and became fascinated by Cheshire’s medieval churches from the age of eleven or twelve, going on to study architecture at Newcastle University. As an architect, he specialised in conservation and spent many years as Durham City’s Conservation Officer, followed by eleven years as Historic Buildings Inspector for English Heritage in the North East. Alongside published research on architectural and landscape history in local and national journals, he has written books on Durham City and Durham University, also founding the North East Vernacular Architecture Group in 1985. In ‘retirement’, he completed the third edition revision of Nikolaus Pevsner’s Buildings of England volume on County Durham in 2021. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in London.