Winchester Heart of a City electronic book - TrustNews Mar 18
To mark its 60th anniversary, The City of Winchester Trust is publishing an electronic version of the highly acclaimed book Winchester - Heart of a City. The book, originally costing £35, was launched in 2009 and sold out very quickly. Today second-hand copies are only rarely available and at double the price.
Winchester - Heart of a City is not just another book about Winchester, but a unique and absorbing source of information about the City’s Conservation Area. The text was the outcome of years of preparation by Andrew Rutter, who was Winchester’s first Conservation Officer. It was his final service to Winchester City Council after a quarter of a century of devoted care for the City he came to love. Originally written in manuscript, his work provided the basis of the City's first official Conservation Area Study, but the Trust felt that his personal, highly detailed and characterful writing should have a wider audience in permanent and accessible form, and with the blessing of the City Council, set up an editorial committee to edit, illustrate and publish this very special book.
The foreword to the book was written by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, the first Chairman of English Heritage:
Andrew Rutter's meticulous study of the city to which he devoted much of his working life, and the honest way in which he sets out both successes and failures, is a credit to his architect's eye and his planner's overview, which have both been supported by his ability to draw. It is good to have many of his sketches, originally produced to assist the City Council in reaching decisions, alongside the wealth of historic illustration in the book. An additional pleasure comes from the watercolour illustrations by Keith Leaman of the Trust, which emphasise the often overlooked importance of the setting of a city. Winchester is unusually blessed by its intimate relationship with the surrounding countryside, which can be seen from many of its streets, and from which one can look down into the City without the interruption of careless modern development.
“With the regeneration of central Winchester, development around the railway station and the new leisure centre at Bar End, as well as Kings Barton and other housing projects, Winchester is currently facing a number of significant developments," said Keith Leaman, chairman of the City of Winchester Trust. “Those involved in any aspect of such developments need to understand what is the identity of Winchester, and we believe that this sensitive and detailed appreciation of the City at the beginning of the 21st century provides a timely and essential information source."
The eBook can be purchased for £15.00. The book consists of 400 pages with over 500 photographs, drawings and paintings. It is available as a PDF file for viewing on a computer or tablet (the book uses compressed images for computer viewing to reduce its overall size). The book can be paid for and downloaded via the link “Winchester Heart of a City" on the City of Winchester Trust's web site www.cityofwinchestertrust.co.uk..