Every year, Wiltshire Buildings Record holds a Study Day, or Symposium on a theme to do with Wiltshire Buildings. We take a subject such as timber-framing, public buildings or the role of the kitchen, and bring together experts to speak on their particular specialty. This year our subject is ‘The Age of Innovation’.

The 19th century was a period of significant architectural innovation and great change, driven by advancements in materials and engineering during the Industrial Revolution. New materials like iron, steel, and glass and development in engineering design enabled the construction of more complex and larger structures, while also leading to new purpose-built types like railway stations, racecourse buildings, and model farms. The popularisation of polite architecture and mechanisation of industrial processes such as brick and tile making meant that even the most humble terraced cottage could look like a small palace or a castle. By the end of the 19^th century the Arts and Crafts movement, headed by William Morris led to a rejection of the new industrialisation, and a return to old-fashioned values with an emphasis on the hand-made. These trends are amply illustrated in Wiltshire’s buildings to be discussed by this year’s speakers and experts in the field.

We are very pleased this year to feature a talk by Claudia Suckling, who is the director of the Wiltshire Historic Buildings Trust, a charity that rescues, repairs and brings back into use historic buildings at risk within our county and supports others in doing so. She is an architectural and art historian who has written and presented on topics as diverse as Victorian Artists’ Studio Houses, medieval timber-framed shops and the workshop practices of Grinling Gibbons, Claudia was formerly Chief Executive of the William Morris Society, on whose work her talk will focus.

Now best known for his enduring designs for fabrics and wallpapers, in his lifetime Morris was renowned for many other talents and interests – from poetry to publishing, politics and social reform to laying the foundations for the Arts & Crafts movement.  Claudia will explore Morris’s work on buildings – from architecture, heritage preservation and garden design to interiors and the philosophy that governed their production, in order to create what Morris believed to be the ideal home.  It will look at the influence that his work had then, the impact it continues to have now and will include images of rarely seen examples of works in his own hand, as well as many of the familiar patterns for which he is known.

Julian Orbach, another distinguished speaker, is the editor of the recently-published authoritative Wiltshire volume in the Buildings of England series, first written by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner in 1963, and revised by Bridget Cherry in 1975. He worked on the listed building resurvey of Wiltshire in the early 1980s, having moved to the county in 1975. He worked on the similar resurvey in Wales, and co-authored 3 volumes of the Buildings of Wales, before revising Pevsner’s volume for South and West Somerset, published 2014. He is also the author of Victorian Architecture in Britain. Julian’s talks are popular with Wiltshire Buildings Record, and this year his subject is Model Farms.

Along with innovations in building an agricultural revolution took place throughout the country. Wiltshire has its fair share of model farms – those purpose-built developments that were designed to increase food production by the application of scientific principles. Many were built during the Victorian period of high farming, but could be as early as 1700. These farms were not just functional agricultural spaces but also architectural statements, reflecting the landowners’ desire to showcase their wealth, status, and commitment to agricultural improvement. In Wiltshire we have some examples from the 1830s for the Wyndhams of Dinton, but many others exist at large estates such as Stalls Farm on the Longleat Estate, built in 1859 by W. Wilkinson for the 4th Marquess of Bath. Until the 1980s the dairy had a water fountain to facilitate a cool atmosphere.

We will be making a bit of a departure from the usual emphasis on domestic and industrial buildings to encompass racecourses and their buildings. Roland Smith has been a professional archaeologist for over 40 years and has lived and worked for a large part of that time in Wiltshire. He is currently Assistant County Archaeologist for Wiltshire Council and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Horse racing has taken place at Salisbury from the 16th-century, and it is one of England’s oldest racecourses. Salisbury racecourse is now Wiltshire’s only commercial racecourse, many others in use in the County in the 19th-century have since been lost, and it is only one of many historic racecourses and their associated buildings that survive across England. Collectively they comprise some of England’s oldest sporting landscapes. This presentation will look at the fascinating history behind some of our best-known racecourses and the many important listed and unlisted historic buildings that are integral to them. This presentation will demonstrate that England’s diverse, historic racecourses comprise some of our most important sporting landscapes and are worthy of appreciation and protection.

We have been fortunate at WBR to benefit from the expertise of Anthony Cousins, an expert in classical ornament. His subject is ‘From Ancient Greece and Medievalism to Gas Fires and Electric lighting; A journey through Victorian interiors’.

He will explore the changing influence of various styles and ideals of the period, focusing predominantly on a Drawing Room/ Best Parlour as widely relatable today as Living rooms. He will cover architectural features – mouldings, fireplaces, windows, colour and wall coverings as well as the evolution of lighting – mineral oil to electric. Light control was very important to the Victorians, and it is at this time that windows sport all manner of blinds and drapery inside and out. Anthony will also address one of the other Victorian obsessions of ventilation, looking at grilles, roses and high ceilings.

This is a subject that I will also be touching on in my discussion on the polite revolution in farmhouses and cottages. Many older farmhouses and gentry houses benefited from a remodelling to bring them up to date: walls were raised, parapets added, windows lengthened, all to create the façade of a classical cube, or at least a nod in that direction, never mind that the interior still had deep beams holding up low ceilings. By the middle of the century the backlash had begun, and rustication was all the rage.

Local architect Michael Gray had a practice in Holland Park, London before training as conservation architect and returning to Swindon where he is a trustee for the Friends of Lydiard Park. He has written about the Quaker architect Brightwen Binyon 1846-1905, who was assistant to A. Waterhouse. He replied to an advertisement to become architect to Swindon School Board in 1879, and was subsequently responsible for a number of schools in Swindon. He also made additions to the Mechanic’s Institute in 1891, and the now demolished New Queen’s Theatre in Groundwell Road (around 1898).

You are invited to join us at the Corn Exchange in Devizes Market Place on the 18^th October this year for a full day of expert speakers. For more information please contact me on Dorothy.treasure@wiltshire.gov.uk, or ring the office in Chippenham on 01249 705508

Dorothy Treasure, Principal Buildings Historian, Wiltshire Buildings Record