A Slice of History: Pevsner's North Riding

This talk will explore the history of the renowned Pevsner Architectural Guides and the process of revising a Pevsner volume. Dr. Jane Grenville will also examine a range of smaller medieval buildings comparable to Bedern Hall, from converted structures to agricultural and storage buildings, as well as medieval halls that were incorporated into later dwellings.

Grenville's early career was as a digging archaeologist. Early on, she encountered Harold Taylor (author of Anglo-Saxon Architecture) and developed an interest in the application of stratigraphic techniques to the study of standing buildings. This led to a diversion into architectural history and conservation, with a stint on the 1980s Re-Survey of Listed Buildings in North Yorkshire, followed by a few years as casework officer for the Council for British Archaeology. In 1991 she joined the Archaeology Department at the University of York, where she developed the MA in the Archaeology of Buildings and for several years led the MA in Conservation Studies (Historic Buildings). She then spent seven years in senior management, retiring as Deputy Vice-Chancellor in 2015. In retirement she returned to her listing patch to revise Pevsner's North Riding volume - unequivocally the best job so far in a generally fortunate career. Pevsner's North Riding volume did not receive a thorough desk-top edit in the '70s or '80s as many volumes did; this is the first hard look since 1966.