Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

The Buildings Archaeologist – Discovering the Secrets of Britain’s Ancient Buildings

Dr James Wright, FSA

Visit any settlement in the land and there will be ancient buildings hidden in plain sight. Behind a Victorian façade is a Tudor house. Underneath a Georgian frontage is a mediaeval cottage. What is now a modern farm may once have been a castle. We know relatively little about the ancient buildings that surround us, yet buildings archaeology can offer us so many clues for discovering the secrets of hidden historic houses.

This talk is based on a new book of the same name. It looks at the ways in which ancient buildings have been studied and conserved, the puzzling ways that some buildings became listed whereas others were overlooked, and how we can really understand the age and development of a structure. With over a quarter of a century of field experience, James Wright uses case studies drawn from his career to explain the fascinating, enigmatic, and surprising world of The Buildings Archaeologist.

Biography: Dr James Wright FSA (Triskele Heritage), is an award-winning buildings archaeologist. He has over two decades professional experience of ferreting around in people’s cellars, hunting through their attics and digging up their gardens. He hopes to find meaningful truths about how folk lived their lives in the past. He is the author of the Historic Building Mythbusting (2024) and The Buildings Archaeologist (2026) which were both released via The History Press.

7pm in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum on TUESDAY 20 October 2026.

YPS Members and students free, non members £5.