Worcestershire Alan Brooks and Nikolaus Pevsner ISBN: 9780300112986 Worcestershire extends from the dramatic Malvern Hills on the western boundary, through the Severn Valley, to the fringes of the Cotswolds on the east. Its architecture is no less rich than its landscape. The noble Gothic cathedral of Worcester is justly famous; less well-known are the splendid remains of the abbeys and priories at Pershore, Evesham and Malvern. Historic parish churches are plentiful, with especially rich showings of Norman and Georgian work. Also abundant are timber-framed houses, with spectacular examples in both town and country from the Middle Ages until well into seventeenth century. But Worcestershire is also a county of red brick and sandstone, as the many fine country houses show: Jacobean Westwood, with its extraordinary X-plan; Hanbury Hall, a gem of the Wren period; Hagley Hall, grand and Palladian; Witley Court, the seat of the Earls of Dudley, now an unforgettable Victorian ruin. Towns come in all shapes, sizes and moods, including Stourport, the only English town created by the canals, Kidderminster with its sturdy carpet mills, the genteel spa resort at Great Malvern, and the leafy New Town at Redditch.
	Essex by James Bettley and Nikolaus Pevsner (2007) ISBN: 9780300116144 Essex is one the largest counties of England, stretching from the suburban fringes of East London to the fishing and sailing ports of Harwich and Maldon and the famous seaside resorts of the estuaries of the east coast. Its buildings are appropriately varied, encompassing rich Roman survivals at Colchester, powerful Norman architecture at Castle Hedingham and Waltham Abbey and the remains of major Tudor and Jacobean country houses such as Layer Marney Tower and the prodigious mansion at Audley End. Beside these highlights Essex is first and foremost a county famed for its timber buildings, from the eleventh-century church at Greensted to the early and mighty barns at Cressing Temple, and everywhere visible in the wealth of medieval houses in its scattered villages and the market towns of Saffron Walden and Coggeshall. Later periods have also made their contribution, from Georgian town houses to Victorian and Edwardian industrial and civic buildings, and from important exemplars of early Modern Movement architecture to the planned New Towns of Basildon and Harlow. Such diversity continues into the present with the major monument of High Tech at Stansted Airport.
	Perth and Kinross by John Gifford (2007) ISBN: 9780300109221 Perth and Kinross, at the geographical heart of Scotland, contains buildings which range from the remains of a Roman line of forts and watch towers (the fort at Ardoch, of the first and second centuries, is one of the best preserved and least known of such structures in Britain), early historic hill forts, a remarkable array of carved stones erected by the warrior aristocracy of the sixth to ninth centuries, the wilfully inventive medieval Dunkeld Cathedral, and mottes, castles and tower houses, among them the island fortress of Lochleven Castle and Elcho Castle’s show-off assertion of baronial status. The grandiose funerary monuments of the 17th century at Scone Palace and the Kinoull Aisle presaged the ‘court’ classicism of Sir William Bruce exemplified in the creation of his own mansion, garden and landscape at Kinross House. Blair Castle’s mid-C18 stucco work, unequalled in Scotland, celebrates the magnificence of the Dukes of Atholl, this display challenged in the early C19 by the sumptuous Gothic palaces of Scone and Taymouth Castle. A multitude of smaller country houses embrace a variety of styles (classical, Italianate, castellated and Baronial), while Georgian and Victorian churches, many with superb stained glass, abound. Among towns and villages Dunkeld is the epitome of a small Scottish burgh while Perth has expanded from its medieval core with the addition of late Georgian ‘new towns’ and civic and industrial monuments of the C19.