How Master Craftsmen Built Medieval Buildings

With hard work, trying to keep up with my fellow apprentices, I took extra evening classes at Folkestone technical college. My working day started at 7am and finished at 5pm with a half hour lunch break, working a 9½ hour day and 5½ hours on a Saturday morning, totalling a 52-hour week.

I had to go to college for a whole day, including an evening class, plus a further evening class on another day. To catch up on my English I had a further evening class for students with reading and writing difficulties, my English teacher became my saviour.

Even though I struggled through college, I did manage to get my City and Guilds Advance Craft with credit passes and went on to get my Higher National Certificate in Construction. After various bridge courses in advanced construction, measurement and construction law I qualified as an architectural technologist.

Later, working for architects and surveyors, I became proficient at architectural drawing and surveying. These skills have been a great asset for this research. All the line drawings in my articles are mine and many of the buildings have been measured by me.

With this experience behind me, I worked for the Government Properties Services Agency and eventually was able to transfer to a post with the Department of the Environment, which became English Heritage. This started my career in historic building conservation, as a Superintendent of Works in the South West Region, where I met CID Davis who was repairing Kempley Church roof in Gloucester.

I learnt a great deal from CID about oak frame repairs. The Directly Employed Labour (DEL) was later disbanded by English Heritage and I moved onto private practice, having done a stint at being a conservation officer. I continued my studies at Kings Manor, York University, to obtain my Masters Degree in Historic Building Conservation.

With an MA under my belt, I was able to get more involved in archaeology, recording and conserving medieval timber frame and stone buildings. Now retired, using all my past experience, I have been able to research the origin of my craft carpentry. These articles are the result of my labour.

I have already published papers on the subject of carpenters’ knowledge in setting out , I have published the Carpenters’ Study on the Saxon door at Westminster Abbey (with Peter Massey) and a further publication on St Helens (Saxon) Church, Hastings, East Sussex .