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Event Description

Discovering the secrets of Britain’s ancient buildings

Why do we know so little about the ancient buildings which surround our everyday lives?

Britain can be justifiably proud of its approximately half a million listed buildings. Surprisingly, as many as 60% may have been identified incorrectly. Behind a Victorian façade is a Tudor house. Underneath a Georgian frontage is a mediaeval cottage. What is now a farm was once a castle. Many buildings, hundreds of years old, are entirely unlisted.

How can a nation so obsessed with history have missed so many ancient buildings?

The Buildings Archaeologist is the first book in over a quarter of a century to offer clues for discovering the secrets of Britain’s ancient buildings. It examines the ways in which historic architecture has been observed, studied, and conserved. The puzzles surrounding why some buildings were listed and others overlooked will be solved. It acts as a field guide to the written records, tree-ring dating, and archaeology which help us to investigate the age, development, and social history of ancient buildings. These include houses, castles, churches, mills, factories, and warehouses hidden in plain sight.

James Wright will explain the fascinating, enigmatic, and surprising world of The Buildings Archaeologist using case studies drawn from Worcestershire and beyond. There will be a major case study of Lydes House at Barnards Green, near Great Malvern. This event will be part of a nationwide tour linked to his new book.

The speaker, James Wright (Triskele Heritage), is an award-winning buildings archaeologist. He has over 25 years of professional experience of ferreting around in people’s cellars, hunting through their attics and digging up their gardens. He hopes to find meaningful truths about how ordinary and extraordinary folk lived their lives in the past. He is the author of The Buildings Archaeologist, which will be released by The History Press in October 2026.

Tickets

£9.38 including booking fee – book online at Eventbrite

Friday 9 October 2026

7:30pm

Malvern Cube

Location

Malvern Cube

WR14 2YF

01684 575363

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