Thirtieth Anniversary of the Vernacular Architecture Group

Abstract

1984 has seen the thirtieth anniversary of the inaugural meeting of the V.A.G., which took place on 8 April 1954, as recorded by Sir Robert de Zouche Hall in VA 5, 1974. It was therefore thought appropriate to ask a number of people to offer their views on the achievements of the Group so far and on the direction which its work, and vernacular studies in general, should take in the future.

Cary Carson writes from the point of view of an overseas member; Christopher Currie contributes an historian's opinion; Linda Hall belongs to the younger generation of buildings researchers; Eric Mercer writes as one of the pioneers of vernacular studies in this country; John Newman presents an outsider's view of the material published in this journal, suggesting that the divide between 'vernacular' and 'polite' can be overemphasised and that the relationships which can be demonstrated in the seventeenth-century and later may be applicable to the study of the domestic architecture of earlier periods.