Historic England Missing Pieces Project

Penrith and elsewhere.

Historic England have a project to crowd source photographs of listed buildings called Missing Pieces. They are the organisation responsible for maintaining the register of listed buildings, but their database is text based so they are asking the public to contribute photographs. They are happy with phone pictures. They ask for "Images: from phone snaps to scans of vintage photos and architects’ drawings, from wide angles to close-ups."

Avon Cottage, our first home together after we married, was Grade II listed and I have unique photographs not available to anyone else so that was a good place to start: 

The cottage was 14th century with a cruck frame construction. The end wall during repairs shows an original mediaeval wattle and daub panel.

Full listing for Avon Cottage.

Next, I have some never before published photographs of the interior of Coventry Baths for which my father was the Principal Architect. He had various memorabilia which I hope to donate to the archives at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry.

Full listing for Coventry Central Baths (original part including sunbathing terraces).

In Penrith, now our home town, there are many listed buildings within easy walking distance without any photographs. So what I’ve been doing is wandering about the town taking photographs on my iPhone and uploading them. 

Some examples: 

13, Brunswick Square. An early C19 Gothic cottage. Apparently at one time a pub and a house that Mary would have loved to buy. Unfortunately, due to the asking price and renovations required, just too expensive.

3 and 4, Devonshire Street. 18th century as is much of Devonshire Street. All you have to do is look up above the 20th century plastic shop fascias to see Penrith's history.

12, Devonshire Street. Late 18th century again. Most of the street is listed as a result.

 

While we were in Blackpool, I looked up the Winter Gardens which unsurprisingly were listed. Looking at the map I saw a listing for a group of eight iconic K6 red telephone boxes without a photograph on the website. 

When I searched to see if there were any other listed telephone boxes, I was surprised to discover there were 2,402 entries for K6. I guess if you’re going to list one, then you can’t play favourites and so have to list them all!

All my contributions here: https://historicengland.org.uk/profile/336121/MarkMcLellan.