Expert's book outlines history of housing

Modern housing estates may lack character, but they usually include at least a nod to homes of years gone by writes Cathy Spencer.

And to historian David Eveleigh they are merely the next stage in the fascinating evolution of British architecture.

A director of collections at the Black Country Museum, his big love is studying housing and describing how it fits into our country's past.

So much so that he has now written a book on the subject of town houses.

• Click on the gallery to your right for examples of local historic housing

David said today's estates may appear to be soulless and identikit but they all owe something to styles of home lived in by past generations.

He said: "Today we see housing companies continue to build in a range of traditional styles. Mock timber framing is back, so are steeper-pitched roofs, dormers, gables and bay windows.

"These all echo late-Victorian town architecture and confirm the enduring appeal of Britain's architectural heritage stretching back more than 300 years."

His book, called Town House Architecture, looks at the history of buildings from the classical work of the mid 17th Century through to our present family homes on new estates.

The 55-year-old started working on the book more than two years ago when he lived in Bristol. But he moved to Bridgnorth and took up a new job as director of collections, planning and research at the Black Country Living Museum.

In his book David has looked at the Black Country's back-to-back houses, Victorian homes in Dudley Road, Tipton and a red bricked 1850s home in Castle Hill, Dudley.

He said: "In 1925, Dudley was the first local authority to build council houses out of cast-iron plates bolted together, after it was declared that the country would 'build homes for heroes'. The houses in Birmingham Road were of the non-parlour type and the ironwork was locally made by the Eclipse Foundry Company."

The book starts in 1600s, when elements of housing recognisable today started to develop. Inigo Jones, surveyor to the King at the start of the 17th Century, designed a formal square in Covent Garden, London that was filled on two sides by homes, a design claimed to be 'the first great contribution to English urbanism'.

David added: "I'm pleased I moved up to the West Midlands because it has been so beneficial for the book and has really given me a different perspective on architecture in the region."