Concrete Farm Structures by A M Pennington 1954 First Edition Illustrated
 
Concrete Farm Structures by A M Pennington 1954 First Edition Illustrated. A scarce mid-century agricultural manual with photos and diagrams, clean and complete.
 
Title & Bibliographic Detail
Concrete Farm Structures
By A. M. Pennington
First Published Edition, 1954
London: Concrete Publications Limited, 14 Dartmouth Street
Printed in Great Britain by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, London and Beccles
Illustrated throughout with photographs, diagrams, and 
technical drawings.
 
Historical & Bibliographic Context
Published in the immediate post-war period, Concrete Farm Structures reflects a transformative moment in British agriculture. The 1950s saw rapid mechanisation and modernisation, with concrete becoming the preferred material for durable, hygienic, and efficient farm buildings.
 
Pennington’s manual was part of a broader movement to professionalise and rationalise farm design, offering practical, standardised guidance for constructing dairies, silos, barns, stores, yards, and other agricultural structures. Books like this were used by farmers, agricultural engineers, and building consultants, and many copies were heavily worked or discarded, making well-preserved examples increasingly scarce.
 
About the Author
A. M. Pennington was an agricultural and construction specialist writing for the mid-century British farming sector, focused on practical, modern building methods.
 
Binding & Exterior Description
Bound in blue cloth over boards and spine, with black lettering to the front board and spine, and the Concrete Series emblem to the front. A sturdy, utilitarian mid-century industrial binding designed for working environments.
 
The boards remain intact and robust. Wear includes discolouration and fading to the spine and edges, rubbing where the spine meets the front board, scattered marks, and some white pen to the spine, all honest signs of use in a professional setting.
 
Interior Condition
Pages are lightly tanned, but overall neat, clean, and uncreased. Only the very occasional small or light mark is present, not affecting the text. There are no rips, and the text block is tightly bound.
 
On the front free endpaper there is pen, pencil, a small sticker, and an ink stamp for “Building Research Station Library”. The back pastedown bears an ink stamp reading:
“D.S.I.R. Central Catalogue 30 Jun 1954”, tying the book directly to Britain’s post-war government research infrastructure.
 
Physical Details
• Pagination: vi + 154 pages
• Size: approx. 23.6 × 15.7 × 0.6 cm
• Weight: approx. 386 g
 
Rarity & Collector Notes
This is a First Published Edition (1954) – the earliest and most desirable issue of Pennington’s work. Copies were typically used hard in working environments, and many were discarded, making clean, complete examples increasingly uncommon.
 
The combination of:
• First edition status
• Full photographic and diagrammatic illustration
• Institutional provenance (Building Research Station / D.S.I.R.)
• Tight binding and clean pages
 
…makes this a particularly attractive copy for collectors of agricultural history, rural architecture, post-war British industry, and government research material.
 
Provenance
This copy comes from the Building Research Station Library, part of the U.K. Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (D.S.I.R.), Britain’s central body for post-war technical and industrial research.
 
Stamped and catalogued in June 1954, the year of publication, this book was originally held as a professional reference volume within Britain’s national research system – giving it a strong institutional provenance linked to mid-century agricultural and construction policy.