Cotswold Arts and Crafts Architecture

Between 1890 and 1930, Arts and Crafts architecture proliferated within the Cotswolds. The range and quality of the buildings was exceptional, as the region provided the perfect environment for the Movement’s ideals and principles to flourish. Arts and Crafts architects relished the robust vernacular precedent that served to focus their ideas and stimulate their creativity. Its rational basis and dependence on craft skills had lasting relevance, and it was no coincidence that the most infl uential aspect of their work was its emphasis on conservation.The achievements of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the Cotswold region has attracted much interest in recent decades, the appeal of the simple life and traditional values having as much allure now as they did a century ago. This was the first study to focus entirely on the Arts and Crafts architecture within the region, and to examine its impact on the Cotswold landscape, on the survival of the local building traditions and attitudes to heritage and conservation.This new and updated paperback edition provides a guide to the general characteristics of Cotswold Arts and Crafts structures, with chapters on the various types of new commissions to be found, as well as repair and remodeling projects. The final chapter discusses the late flowering of Arts and Crafts work that occurred during the interwar period and beyond, and the legacy of this important body of work at a local and national level.

Catherine Gordon works as an historic building consultant and has contributed to various publications, including a history of Chipping Campden and a history of the Earls of Coventry and the Croome estate. She spends much of her spare time in the Cotswolds and this book represents a reappraisal of a favorite subject and a welcome return to familiar places.