Labour of love for updated guide plus help on solar power

OUR main feature this week is on the revision of Pevsner’s architectural guide to the North Riding of Yorkshire. This was one of the largest of the old counties and though it was abolished in 1974, this vast area it covers does, of course, still exist.

Nikolaus Pevsner’s guide was published in 1966 and, unlike all his other guides, it had never been updated, added to or corrected, except for a few amendments on its second printing.

Yale University Press, which now owns the rights to the books, could not have chosen better when they asked Jane Grenville, an archaeologist and academic, to correct and add to a new edition of the guide.

She spent the best part of six years on the project, travelling round the old North Riding, checking Pevsner’s information, revising and adding to it, while also including more buildings that she felt worthy of mention.

She began collecting Pevsner guides when was an undergraduate and her genuine love of the books shines through.

Jane would dearly like Yale University Press to digitise all Pevsner guides so corrections and additions can be quickly and easily made. She would also like to see the books as apps so people can take them on walks around the various old counties so they can both see and read about the special buildings featured in the guides.

Also this week, we got an expert in to explore solar power and the costs and the benefits of installing solar panels to our own homes.

What is clear is that while prices have come down and battery storage is now an option that allows you to keep and use the electricity you generate, financial help from the Government is still needed for most households.

There is no doubt that solar power would be a great investment in the country’s future and it is one that would help keep Britain greener and cleaner with no risk attached as opposed to nuclear power.