Wrought iron has been used as a decorative element in architecture from the eleventh century to the twentieth. At first a device to strengthen and embellish doors, wrought iron was soon adopted for free-standing screens and railings, examples of which can still be seen in churches and cathedrals. At the end of the seventeenth century iron screens, gates and railings became a fashionable element of country and town houses, resulting in the most creative period of decorative ironwork. The cheaper technique of cast iron led to a subsequent decline in wrought iron, although the latter underwent a...

Although misericords were originally installed on the hidden undersides of church folding seats to provide comfort to those standing for long periods of prayer, the have gradually become more ornately carved and decorated. Now they, along with the benches installed in parish churches in the later middle ages, are the objects of a large proportion of the surviving medieval woodcarving in Britain. The subject matter of these carvings is not merely concerned with religion and religious symbolism. This book outlines the history of church seating, considers the status of the craftsmen and the...

Green men are figures or heads that were carved in churches, abbeys and cathedrals from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. Inspired by the illustrations in book margins where heads were used to terminate trails of foliage, they were usually carved in the form of human masks, cats' or demons' heads. The earliest architectural green men are found in the churches of the wealthy and influential, such as Henry I's private chapel in Derbyshire but they were still produced in lesser numbers into the nineteenth century. Richard Hayman discusses the origins and definitions of these fascinating...

From the heady days at Coalbrookdale on the banks of the Severn to the decline of a once-mighty industry, Richard Hayman tells the story of iron and its effects on Britain and the world.

Coal heated the homes, fuelled the furnaces and powered the engines of the Industrial Revolution. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the coalfields - distinct landscapes of colliery winding frames, slag heaps and mining villages - made up Britain's industrial heartlands. Coal was known as 'black gold' but it was only brought to the surface with skill and at considerable risk, with flooding, rock falls and gas explosions a constant danger. Coal miners became a recognised force in British political life, forming a vociferous and often militant lobby for better working conditions and a...

The Reformation transformed England forever. From peasants in the lanes and fields to the court of Henry VIII, no life was left untouched as the Roman Catholic Church was replaced as the centre of the nation's religious life. Emerging from a dense mesh of European ecclesiastical and political controversy and Tudor dynastic ambition, the English Reformation ended with the Pope supplanted as the head of the national church, the great monasteries -owners of much of the country's land-disbanded and destroyed, the Latin Mass replaced by vernacular services and the colourful wall paintings of...

An engaging introduction to the workings of church buildings and churchyards, explaining the integral elements of a working church and how they have changed over time.

A brief history of the design and construction of bridges in the UK from medieval times to the modern day, including famous and notable examples such as Tower Bridge and the Forth Bridge.