One of the many pleasures to be derived from reading this important work is to reinforce the message that there is still a place for scholarship of great significance from an individual and, if in this case not exactly an amateur, at least somebody outside the academic mainstream. From 1975 to 1988 Anthony Emery pursued a successful business career. As a result of his interest and publication in the archaeology of the late mediaeval house, he became a Founder Commissioner of English Heritage in 1984 and has been Chairman of the Bath Archaeological Trust since 1994.
His survey is the first of its kind for more than 150 years and the three volumes of his work will cover almost 700 houses throughout England and Wales. This second volume reappraises more than 320 properties and brings together in wide‐ranging detail the current state of knowledge and research on each, as well as on the wider subject of which each forms a part.
The volume is divided into five geographical regions (East Anglia, East Midlands, Central Midlands, West Midlands, Wales), each comprising (apart from Wales which covers the whole principality) three or four pre‐1974 counties (that is the real counties rather than the various post‐1974 follies). Each region has a detailed historical introduction and architectural overview, then features an essay on some broader aspect of mediaeval architecture relating to the region and based on a survey of one of the featured houses (thus the gatehouse of Burtley Priory in Suffolk and monastic residential buildings, or Hunston House in Hertfordshire and fifteenth century defensive tower houses). The introductions are completed by detailed, although selective, bibliographic surveys. Appendices to each section list residential additions to castles in the region and residential licences to crenellate. This all leads in to the meticulous treatment of the individual houses.
Each house is described in considerable architectural and archaeological detail, with photographs of them in their present (often and happily enough very well preserved) state, including relevant details, and plans. The historical discussions relate to the architectural development of each house, with information about builders, owners and the like presented only as it relates to that architectural history. Anecdotal or other similar associative history must be sought elsewhere. The entry for each house also carries bibliographic references relating to the specific house and showing just how thoroughly the records have been trawled. All evidence and fact, not least based on the author’s own observations, is scrupulously recorded and discussed within its wider regional and architectural context.
The result is an elegantly designed and clearly and attractively produced (although a few pages in the review copy are faulty in being blank) work of enormous reference value on at least two counts. In the first place, and within its own context, this is a major work on architectural and mediaeval history, establishing the place of houses in this period not in relation to the castle in decline, but more positively for social and architectural developments in their own right. The coverage is wide, including obviously houses built for a family (or families), but also those built for collegiate occupation, whether academic, monastic or guild.
The second significant reference feature of this work is as a source for local antiquarian and archaeological history. The depth and range of local detail is of remarkable value from a single volume: all the more so when the three‐volume series is completed by a volume on Southern England (Volume 1 dealt with Northern England). In terms of the reference library this must therefore be considered a work of enormous importance. The number of major reference and local history collections across the region covered in this one volume is significant: all must want ‐ and most of them need ‐ to have this work at least as far as it covers their own region. But on a broader perspective any collection featuring English or Welsh or mediaeval history, or architectural and archaeological history, will need the whole set. It seems likely to be another 150 years before this work might be attempted again ‐ if there is anything left to survey, of course.
