Our Blogs

London homeowners who enjoy the traditional wax look on solid wood flooring without the intensive labouring process of years gone by can choose to have the hard waxed look but with the added advantage of a lacquered finish. Lacquer finishing, synthetic and...

Once inside a church, you can focus attention on all the fascinating bits and pieces that go to make up the liturgical requirements: the fittings. And so many are made of wood! Before the 15th century, the poor attender at mass was forced to stand (though there was...

In today’s sophisticated world, it’s difficult to imagine a less exciting or romantic building than a barn. Yet the popularity for their conversion into habitable dwellings shows their potential. Indeed, a handful of surviving medieval examples are splendid...

At one time, a windmill was as ubiquitous an English rural feature as the parish church, with up to 10,000 working throughout the country. Now a rare sight, windmills are most common in flat and windy East Anglia, though survivors exist in such unlikely places as...

We expect to see the altar in its traditional position at the east end of a church – yet by the early 17th century, the Puritans wanted to move it towards the center. In 1635, the traditionalist Archbishop Thomas Laud ordered the erection of wooden altar rails – east,...

Of all the wooden features within an ancient church, the most splendid is often the roof (a stone roof is called a vault) – in whose construction English carpenters excelled, adding details of enduring interest and great beauty. Open timber roofs – always of oak –...

A floor is a simple enough thing: a surface on which to stand, walk, place furniture.. preferably kept warm and dry. On that level, a cave was a good enough start, with people eventually moving on to mud floors covered in rushes. These also served to soak up animal...

With many a well done floor restoration being let down by a botchy finish and a confusing number of products and applicators on the market to choose from, it may be time to ask a couple of fundamental questions: A) How do you know what type of finishing to use? B) How...

A gratifying number of medieval and later dovecotes survive in the UK - some free standing; others as part of more modern buildings. Many match their original occupants for beauty and charm - epitomising the ideal of a building as one whose function is matched to its...

The charming church of St Andrew at Greensted near Ongar in Essex lies in a quiet clearing surrounded by woodland. How appropriate for a building with the oldest wooden walls in England – dating from before the Conquest, as its nave was constructed around 1013 from a...