Robert Harbison follows Pevsners wider, deeper track through the northern reaches of Lancashire

摘要

The area covered by this volume isn't quite "The rural north' of Pevsner's old Lancashire 2, for Lancashire north of the sands has been lopped off to wait for the new Cumbria volume. That part contained the best medieval buildings and much of the best landscape, but as usual this fuller treatment has found new interest in some surprising places - Blackpool, for instance, which Pevsner had dismissed for its 'lack of aesthetic discrimination', and in Burnley's industrial landscape. Of course we still wouldn't go to Blackpool for the great heights of architectural achievement, with its second-rate imitation of the Eiffel Tower with its feet caught in buildings.