Anglo-Saxon Pottery

Arts & Photography

David H. Kennett

Other Media

Shire

At the Great Exhibition of 1851, English manufacturers showed furniture in which ceramic plaques painted at the Worcester factory were used. As tiles became more readily available, pictorial and patterned tiles were used as decoration and protection on a range of items throughout the house, from bedroom wash-stands to hall-stands, tile screens, pot-stands and flower boxes. The author describes and illustrates the variety of material used in conjunction with tiles, the range of prevailing styles, from Gothic to Anglo-Japanese, with which they were combined, the furniture manufacturers producing tiled pieces, and the tilemakers themselves.

Tiled Furniture (Shire Library)

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Van Lemmen, Hans

Antiques & Collectibles

Barrows in England and Wales

GRINSELL, Leslie V.

The ancestry of Humber goes back as far as any in the British motor industry, to 1868 when Thomas Humber began to make French-style forerunners to the bicycle, in Nottingham. The first Humber cars were also of French design, but Humber soon became a wholly British car made in two factories, cheaper models at Coventry and more expensive ones at Beeston. Humbers were among the most respected British cars of the 1920s, moving up-market in the 1930s. Humbers retained their reputation for quality up to the end of the line in 1976.

The Humber (Shire Library)

Engineering & Transportation

Georgano, G.N.

Automotive

Staff Cars (Shire Library)

History

FLETCHER, David

Military

Viking raids, and the subsequent Scandinavian settlements in the ninth and tenth centuries, had a major effect on many parts of Britain and Ireland. These impacts can best be seen in a wide variety of archaeological discoveries, primarily from distinctive pre-Christian burials, which contain weapons, tools, jewellery and metal, wood and bone artefacts. Written by an expert in the field of Viking and Norse archaeology, this book examines the distinctive archaeology of each phase, aspect or area of Norse impact in turn, with sufficient historical background to put the archaeological discoveries into context.

Viking Age Archaeology (Shire Archaeology)

HALL, Richard

Europe

Most English and Welsh towns were founded or grew rapidly in the later medieval period, in particular between the mid twelfth and early fourteenth centuries. This book begins by giving a brief outline of the great growth in the number and size of towns and outlines the archaeological, documentary and cartographic evidence that is available. It then goes on to relate that evidence to surviving and lost features in the townscape, with the aim of providing enough background material for the reader to be able to see why, when, where and how any medieval town grew. Particular topics covered include town sites, their overall layout, street patterns, defences (castles, walls and gates), markets, trades, churches, chapels, monasteries, suburbs, property boundaries and houses. Above all, this is a practical guide to the study of medieval town plans.
 Dr Paul Hindle took early retirement in 2000; he was previously a Senior Lecturer in Geography. He is Honorary Secretary of Manchester Geographical Society. He has written widely on roads, maps and the Lake District.

Medieval Town Plans (Shire Archaeology)

Hindle, Brian Paul

Many people think the primary purpose of a walking stick is to help the aged and infirm, but not so. For centuries man has used the stick for many different purposes, both decorative and practical. Its first use was as a defensive weapon. Later it became a symbol of authority, carried by tribal chiefs, army officers and policemen, and a costume accessory, an appendage of the swaggering dandy. This book examines the two main groups of walking sticks and canes: gadget sticks and decorative ones. It will be useful not only to cane collectors but also to collectors in general, who will find that the study of canes overlaps many other fields.

Walking Sticks (Shire Library)

DIKE, Catherine

Decorative leadwork is an unsung craft tradition with its origins in the distant past. A simple, hardly changing process of manufacture by hand, using sheet lead and carved moulds, has long continued. Applied designs with floral, zoomorphic or human forms are rarely repeated in entirety. Similar but seldom identical designs and legends can be found in numerous artefacts, large and small, fromt he Roman era to the twentieth century, including Roman water tanks, Saxon caskets, twelfth-century fonts, papal bull seals, tokens of secular or religious significance and quaint roof embellishments. Ornate lead rainheads have survived from Tudor times to the present day and decorative leadwork, both free-standing and applied, continues to be conserved or replenished by craftsmen and artists today in response to aesthetic needs.

Decorative Leadwork (Shire Library)

Sutton-Goold, P. M

Crafts & Hobbies

Dirigible balloons, usually known as airships, were first suggested in the late eighteenth century but not until the invention of the internal combustion engine a hundred years later were they able to achieve controlled and directed flight.

Airships (Shire Library)

ABBOTT, Patrick

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