About View Buildings

Forward by John Vigar

Since the early sixteenth century when the first county historians started recording our built environment, architectural history has become part of our culture. At first we were only interested in what were then called `antiquities` - Stonehenge, roman villas and the like. Then, as gentlemen scholars realised that our own, more recent, architecture was of equal merit to that of earlier civilisations, Saxon churches and Norman castles became objects of research. The eighteenth century Gentleman's Magazine and the learned journals of the early county archaeological societies carried detailed articles of features rare and curious. These in turn lead to the formation of specialist societies whose sole purpose was to explain the ways in which buildings of all types reflect the ways in which they were used. Early twentieth century guides listed notable buildings in tourist areas whilst country clergymen extolled the virtues of their own parish church.

But still the concept of looking at buildings as part of a wider landscape was for the specialist only. Then, unexpectedly, the sun rose on a new audience. John Betjeman`s Shell Guides, by their innovative use of photography, started to show us what buildings were really like, rather than just telling us about them. We had suddenly developed a thirst for more information about old buildings... but it took a foreigner, Nikolaus Pevsner, to show us that a more focussed approach would be necessary if we were fully to appreciate what we had around us. His Buildings of England series has since become the main source of reference for anyone interested in architectural history.

Now, the Digital Atlas of England and the View Buildings web site builds on Pevsner`s concept of a comprehensive study, but instead of just retelling the old story anew, presents a series of images that record our built heritage exactly as it is in the opening years of the twenty-first century. It will be an invaluable and easily accessible database, of use to scholars and amateurs alike, who may not have the inclination or resources to visit the thousands of buildings which the series will record. It is the latest, and most accurate, successor of five hundred years of architectural studies, bringing the subject to a wider audience via a new medium for the benefit of this and future generations.

John E Vigar MA FSA Scot FRSA
Aylesford, Kent, October 2004

A Brief Introduction to the Project

A project to photographically document the large corpus of architecturally interesting & historically important buildings in England has never been undertaken until recently. Apart from English Heritage's Images of England there are no plans by any official heritage organisations to do so in the future.

The Digital Atlas of England project was begun in January 1997. It came about as one person's desire to record England's buildings using digital photography. Originally covering buildings and contents with only a handful of photographs, the aim soon expanded to record all features & contents of Anglican parish churches and ideally more than one photograph of all non-Anglican churches and secular buildings listed in the book series The Buildings of England by Nikolaus Pevsner.

Pevsner's series provides a good (if somewhat biased) subset of buildings of "architectural significance" to work from. What's more, the set is significantly smaller than the set of listed buildings thus providing a more realistic objective. Nevertheless, the DAE is heavily skewed towards mediaeval parish churches, a result of both Pevsner's selection and the practicalities of recording privately owned secular buildings photographically (the 1960's pen could go where the 2000's camera cannot). To make up for this, churches are recorded in great detail - both in structure and contents.

As an example, the project currently records most monuments and tombs up to 1850 (and many signed monuments to 1900), brasses & brass indents, hatchments, Royal Arms, pews, pulpits, all fonts up to the mid-19th century, all mediaeval stained glass, Netherlandish panels, etc. Nevertheless, in some respects it is the parish churches which deserve the most detailed coverage; they are usually the oldest buildings and provide the most interesting architectural and cultural record, and they are disappearing (faster than many realise) - what is recorded by the DAE may be the only record. Indeed, some things already recorded have ceased to exist through destruction, neglect or theft.

It should be stressed that the Project, and end results like View Buildings, are not a slavish "photographic version of Pevsner" but stand on their own as independant resources. Much use has been made of numerous additional sources to help in dating, identifying, evaluating and describing what the photographic library contains. In addition, effort has been put into identifying the people responsible for the buildings and artifacts along with the numerous people commemorated on monuments.

The View Buildings website is one of the end results of this massive project. Its purpose is to bring to layman and scholar alike an unparalleled resource that can be used for research, discussion and simply pure appreciation of the built heritage of England.