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The architecture of Aylesbury, the county town of Buckinghamshire, reflects the ordinary architecture which can be found in many small towns in England where the buildings of the town were designed by local architects. This is characteristic of the built environment of Aylesbury, itself a good example of an English county town. The local architecture and vernacular buildings in the market towns were usually inspired at second hand by the work of the great master architects or the general architectural style popular at the time. England had a middle class long before many other European countries, these bourgeois merchants would often return from a visit to one of the cities, or having seen a glimpse of one of the great country houses then require a replica of what they had seen. A local architect would then be employed to recreate it, within limited financial restraints. Sometimes the patron would merely draw an image of what he required and a builder would then interpret the requirements to the best of his ability. This percolation of architectural style was not confined to private houses, but to civic architecture too: an illustrious architect added to civic pride; and when an architect was too expensive for the civic coffers, for a fraction of the price he would judge a competition between local architects, for the privilege of designing a town hall or church. This is exactly what happened in Aylesbury. John Vanbrugh judged two sets of plans for the County Hall (now Aylesbury Crown Court). Thus for ever Vanbrugh's name was remembered in association with the building, the local architect almost forgotten, and civic pride maintained. It is this provincial, often unappreciated and unnoticed architecture, by nationally unknown architects still being produced today which continues to give many English market towns their unique atmosphere and character, the architecture of Aylesbury demonstrates this admirably Aylesbury retains some buildings from the medieval, Stuart, Georgian and Victorian periods, as well as the 20th century. Ceely House, Ardenham House, the Union Workhouse and The County Gaol are among the most notable buildings in the town. St Mary's Church, sited upon a hill surrounded by narrow streets and squares of substantial 18th-century town houses, such as Castle Street, Temple Square and Parson's Fee give an indication of how Aylesbury may have appeared in the 18th century. ==Saxon to medieval period== The earliest stone buildings in the town were the castle and the parish church. Little is known of the castle: its existence is speculation based on the names Castle Street and Castle Fee,〔(The borough of Aylesbury - Introduction and borough | British History Online )〕 though archeological excavations in the 1960s uncovered a section of the castle wall and part of an Iron Age fort. It is likely that it was a Norman structure consisting of just a motte-and-bailey. Built immediately after the conquest it was probably demolished after outliving its requirement following the quelling of the Anarchy of the early 12th century.〔(Aylesbury Castle )〕 The parish church St. Mary the Virgin, Aylesbury, dedicated to St Mary is the oldest surviving building in Aylesbury. Cruciform in design, it follows a common layout of English churches, the tower in the centre, the nave with aisles in the west, leading to the chancel in the east, and chapels in the north and south transepts. The eastern chapel, known as the Lady chapel has beneath it a crypt containing Saxon brickwork, possibly dating from circa 571 when Aylesbury was a Saxon settlement known as Aeglesburge. It is thought a Norman church, of which only the font remains, then stood on the site. The present church was built during the first half of the 13th century, and has later perpendicular battlements. The tower is crowned by a small spire dating from the reign of Charles II. Between 1850 and 1869 the church was restored under the direction of Sir George Gilbert Scott. Pevsner describes this restoration as "''so reckless both exterior and interior look mostly Victorian''".〔Pevsner, Niklaus. The Buildings of Buckinghamshire〕 Scott removed features such as the intricately carved manorial pew, the "three decker" pulpit and replaced some perpendicular windows with Gothic triple lancet windows beloved of the Victorians (the original east window can now be found in the gardens of Green End House in Rickford's Hill). The church was, at this time, in a dilapidated state, the roof was perilous, and innumerable internal burials had undermined the foundations, in addition to this much of the church was let to local organizations, the local fire service kept three fire engines in one of the chapels, and the local regiment and militia stored their stock of gunpowder in part of the church. Many fine architectural details did survive the neglect and following restoration - the large west window, the perpendicular roofs to the transepts, the late 12th century font and the four misericords besides some well carved stone monuments and memorial tablets. In the 1970s the church was again considered perilously unstable, and at one time appeared to be facing demolition, though was eventually restored, and is today the town's principal Church of England place of worship. The former friarage at 27 Rickfords Hill is the oldest residential building in Aylesbury. Constructed circa 1386 as a Franciscan priory the substructure remains intact although the exterior is more modern. Part of the original foundation of the building can still be seen at the side in Friarage Passage. It is possible that the building was re-fronted shortly after the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII in the 16th century. Re-fronting was a common practice in British building techniques and involves stripping away the external shell of the older building, sometimes just the front, and then adding a new shell. There is a high likelihood that the building was re-fronted for a second time or had extra features added to it in the 18th century: the front door, for instance, is of a much later design than 16th century. However records suggest that the size of the doorway, and the position of the windows are original features from the 14th century structure. Today the building is one of the offices of a firm of solicitors,〔(Parrott & Coales Solicitors )〕 who have been based in this building for over 20 years, the main office is 25 yards away at 14 Bourbon Street. It had been the private residence of one Colonel Crouch a Clerk of the Peace and Clerk of Buckinghamshire County Council (1924–1955). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Architecture of Aylesbury」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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