Thomas Hardy and the Evolution of Architecture by Samantha Briggs

On 20 June 1906 Colonel Eustace Balfour read out, to the annual meeting of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, an essay that Thomas Hardy had written specially for the occasion. In his 'Memories of Church Restoration', Hardy lamented his involvement as a young architect in the restoration - or as many Victorians referred to it, 'destruction' - of ancient buildings at a time when the gothic revival was at its height.' He explained, 'I think the damage done to this sentiment of association by replacement, by rupture of continuity, is mainly what makes the enormous loss this country has sustained from its 70 years of church restoration so deplorable." Hardy had come to believe that architecture should be celebrated precisely for the inconsistencies and imperfections that many had tried ruthlessly to obliterate in the name of restoration. For Hardy, architectural preservation meant the preservation not only of aesthetic qualities but of human associations:

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