Sir Walter Raleigh in Dorset Part 1: The Rising Courtier at Old Sherborne Castle
Figure 1: Ruins of Old Sherborne Castle. It was the Civil War in the mid-17th century that led to its present state.[1] RALEIGH AT OLD SHERBORNE CASTLE Sir Walter Raleigh led an extraordinary life. In the Elizabethan court he rose to become one of the most famous...
The English Baroque Plasterwork Garland
Baroque architecture developed in Italy in the early-17th C and appeared in England during the 1660s. The Baroque garland was a motif that appeared as part of a scheme in English plasterwork. This post looks at three examples of plasterwork garlands in Baroque...
Artefacts of the Afterlife
This week I visited the Tutankhamun Exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh. It was a beautifully curated exhibition. I was astounded to see that wooden objects survived from 3345 years ago in fantastic condition. I couldn’t help...
Funeral Hatchments at Crowcombe Church
I recently visited the Holy Ghost Parish Church at Crowcombe in The Quantock Hills, Somerset. The Carew Chapel contains some fine hatchments. Besides church architecture the fixtures and fixings provide us with clues to social history. Human social history evolves and...
Scagliola in Somerset: The Baroque Poulett Memorial at Hinton St George circa 1668
Tucked away in the Poulett chapel of St George’s Church, Hinton St George is one of the earliest works of scagliola in England. It is a remarkable work full of Baroque wonder. The Baroque in Europe arose circa 1600 and lasted until circa 1725. The memorial is for John...
Taking the waters since AD 60: The Cross Bath, Bath
Amongst my many ambitions is to desire to get to know the City of Bath better. I recently spent a morning on business there and couldn’t resist a little meander off the main high street. My quest led me down Bath Street, where facing me at the end is a near-triangular...
Exploring Building History
Exploring Building History is a website and blog dedicated to establishing a resource of historical information related to the built heritage of England. The regular blog posts aim to provide the reader with a diversity of architectural history subjects. This could be a particular building, individual, monument, subject area, architectural element or historical source. Downloadable factsheets, produced on a regular basis, provide a snapshot of relevant historical data for building history study.