The Victorian Society and Yale University Press are pleased to introduce a series of online talks by authors of recent or imminent volumes from all four of the national series, plus the Isle of Man. Our sixth talk takes us to the Isle of Man.
The Isle of Man, in the Irish Sea, is not part of either England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales, but has been influenced by all of them. It started Queen Victoria’s reign as a haven for genteel half pay officers; it ended it as a holiday resort for Lancashire mill-workers and a centre of zinc mining. In between it welcomed works by architects as diverse as J L Pearson, M H Baillie Scott, Basil Champneys and Frank Matcham. This talk, by the author of the new Pevsner for the Island, will give an overview of its Victorian buildings, from churches and chapels to boarding houses and country seats. Highlights will include an early factory village, the world’s largest waterwheel and an introduction to a number of local architects.
Dr Jonathan Kewley is of Manx descent and has known the Island all his life. He read history at Oxford and now works for Historic England as an architectural historian. He lives in London. He is the author of the new Buildings of the Isle of Man in the Pevsner series.
All attendees will be sent a recording of the talk.
