How Carpenters Built Medieval England

 From Medievalists:

One of the strongest insights from Dyer’s article is the sheer ubiquity of carpenters in medieval England. They appear in villages, small market towns, major urban centres, and forested regions where timber was abundant. Using evidence from the 1379–1381 poll taxes, Dyer estimates more than 10,000 carpenters were active around 1380 — or about one in every 270 people was employed in the craft. Their presence spans every kind of medieval settlement, demonstrating that carpentry was a cornerstone trade, not a marginal or urban-only occupation.

Mobility was a key feature of the carpentry trade in medieval England. Using 158 cases where both a carpenter’s home and place of work can be identified, Dyer shows that carpenters travelled widely depending on the scale and prestige of the project. About a third stayed within their own town or village, especially in larger centres such as London or Oxford where work was plentiful. Another third travelled modest distances—up to 12 miles—for routine building tasks, moving between neighbouring communities for house repairs, timber framing, and small construction jobs. This mobility created a wide regional labour market in which both rural and urban carpenters crossed boundaries when opportunities arose. (Read more.)