Matthew Hyde is the author of the new Pevsner for Cumbria (2010), and joint author with Clare Hartwell of Lancashire: Manchester and the South East (2004) and Cheshire (2011). Cumbria was the fruit of four years' intensive fieldwork and scholarship, and the book puts the architectural heritage of Cumbria on a new footing. Three episodes stand out: the very early crosses, the border wars started by Edward I, and the Lake District villas – particularly those of around 1900. His special interest in the villas goes back to an MA thesis (Keele 1992) on J.S. Crowther of Manchester and Windermere, which explored the architectural, social and cultural links between the industrial northwest and the Lake District. The Villas of Alderley Edge (1999) took up the Cheshire end of the story, as did A Window on Knutsford (2000) with its essay on the extraordinary Arts and Crafts houses created by Richard Harding Watt.
Matthew has also worked extensively in education and adult teaching, specialising in hands-on work out of doors and in the Manchester museums and galleries. He comes from a line of writers, artists and craftspeople, and has a practical understanding of woodwork, gilding and stained glass.
