The Buildings of England. Yorkshire: the North Riding
Jane Grenville and Nikolaus Pevsner (Yale, £45)
WHEN Yorkshire was first surveyed by Nikolaus Pevsner in the ‘Buildings of England’ series, its vast extent was divided into three volumes covering the ancient administrative units of the West, North and East Ridings. These architectural surveys were published respectively in 1959, 1966 and 1972, but, on April Fool’s Day 1974, two years after the last appeared, the Ridings—a name derived from the Old Norse thrithi meaning one-third—were abolished. Memory of them, however, remains strong in Yorkshire and the three revised volumes, of which this is the last to appear, have observed these original divisions.
'Ampleforth Abbey is more accurately assessed as “one of the greater glories of the North Riding”'
The area covered in this case extends from Middlesbrough to the north, touches—but does not include—York to the south, Scarborough to the east and Richmond to the west. It includes large swathes of undeveloped landscape including the Vale of Mowbray, the North York Moors and Swaledale, as well as such historic market towns as Masham, Thirsk, Pickering and Malton. The area encompasses a multitude of beautiful villages as well, including Hutton-le-Hole, Coxwold and Crayke.
If the area is possessed of a natural emphasis, it is perhaps towards the architecture of the Middle Ages. That’s because the Riding includes five of the most celebrated monastic ruins in Britain—the abbeys of Rievaulx, Byland, Whitby,
