The YVBSG was formed in 1972 to study and record the traditional architecture of Yorkshire. We survey buildings; organise conferences, day schools and visits; and produce newsletters and an annual journal. https://www.yvbsg.org.uk
Yorkshire Vernacular Buildings Study Group
Members spent two days this week investigating the fabulous Oakwell Hall, Birstall, and trying to understand the stonework and the timberwork inside. Not sure that a consensus was reached - discussions are ongoing!
Had a great time at the weekend surveying an unspoilt farmstead on the North York Moors - farmhouse, piggery, granary, turf house, barns and more. Plenty of interesting features to record - and the sun shone too!
Ruskin urged people to study “the local, the honest, the hand‑wrought”. Oakwell Hall is exactly that with its late 16th century fabric, visible tool marks, real material truth, none of the later prettifying. He would have been delighted to see people still reading buildings with this kind of care.
Interesting timber spotted today forming the porch lintel at East Ayton church. Curved with lots of peg holes. Could it be one of those rare things - a ships' timber? We think it might be!
Our June Newsletter is hot off the press! Catch up with all our latest news, including info about forthcoming events, publications and of course buildings in Yorkshire (and elsewhere)! www.yvbsg.org.uk/newsheets/ju...
Excellent day today recording a cottage in East Ayton - more complicated than it appears from outside. Hope the drawings will resolve some of the puzzles! Rather strangely, the Yorkshire sliding sash windows had 'lugs' like a vertical sliding sash, but why?
This THURSDAY 7th MAY 6 pm: the 2nd talk in our Spring 2026 series on Classical Architecture in North East England @durhamclassics.bsky.social 7 Owengate Durham DH1 3EB: Jane Grenville, ‘Pevsner & Classicism in the North Riding of Yorkshire’. All welcome. @sahgb.bsky.social @yvbsg.bsky.social
High above the stairs at The Folly is a small prospect room.
Built to take advantage of the view, rooms like this were both practical and a symbol of status in the 17th century.
One of many hidden secrets inside The Folly.
Four Gates End is a historic row of terraced houses situated at the junction of Cragg Road, Church Bank Lane, and Blackstone Edge Road in Cragg Vale, near Hebden Bridge. The name originates from ancient packhorse routes across this remote moorland, marking one of the historic gateways or boundaries
The lovely Fauconberg Arms in Coxwold, North Yorkshire, now bare stone but once lime coated, as we can see from archive images and physical evidence on the building (which survives particularly well behind the current sign!) 😀
