NEWTON gets a bit of a beating in the newly-revised edition of the 'architects' bible'.

While the historic centre of the town is described as 'pleasant', the sprawl of Earlestown and Wargrave is condemned.

The harsh review comes in the Liverpool and South West Lancashire Volume of The Buildings of England, updated from the 1968 original.

It has become a standard reference work.

"It's the absolute bible for architectural historians," said a spokesman for publishers Yale University Press.

The edition says Newton is now "dwarfed by the mean industrial extensions of Wargrave and Earlestown."

It adds: "Earlestown has little to recommend it, being bye-law housing encased in the usual 20th century spread."

The market place is described as 'desperately sad'.

And it adds: "Even more offensive are the late 20th century supermarkets on opposite sides - the Netto a shed without even the manners to stand right up to the edge but skulking behind car parking.

"If ever a place needed enlightened, imaginative placemaking, it is here."

All is not doom and gloom though. Newton High Street is 'pleasantly modest' despite the traffic, and Newton Park Farm is said to be handsome.

The same description is given to the railway viaducts over Newton and Sankey Brooks.

Elsewhere, Lightshaw Hall in Golborne is praised for the magnificent interior timber frame, and the house at 51 Park Road is described as 'charming'.

Vulcan Village, with its attractive arrangement around a triangular space, is said to be an improvement on the company houses that founded it in the 1830s.

Lime House, on Newton Road in Lowton, is described as 'sprawling and unhappy' with unsympathetic late 20th century additions.

The book, part of a series covering England, was originally written by Nikolaus Pevsner with the updated version by Richard Pollard. It launched at Warrington Town Hall last week.

ndocking@guardiangrp.co.uk