The Village Carpenter
by Walter Rose
Softcover
135 x 210mm
146pp
Published by Stobart Davies, Hertford, UK
R.R.P.$29.90
ISBN 085442065-7
ON BACK ORDER
Extract from back cover of book:
Walter Rose was a master carpenter and the son and grandson of master carpenters, and he writes of village carpentry as it was practised in Buckinghamshire by his family and their men in Victorian times. Their definition of carpentry was wider than ours, and covered practically all the woodworking done except wheelwright's work. This book touches upon water and windmill repairs, farm and house carpentry, timber buying, work in the saw yard, making field gates and haymaking tools, coffins and much more.
It is not so much a technical record as the sensitive reminiscences of a craftsman; of the community spirit and the attitudes to their work and to their neighbours. It will be of great interest to readers who work with wood or to those who simply have an appreciation for the spirit of craftsmanship and the craftsmen who unfailingly produced honest work.
"A
masterpiece of sentimental historic narrative. You know England and the English
much the more intimately for reading it, and can praise the past without condemning
the present...
Some
of the incidental passages are models of direct description. You can smell the
sawpit, feel the dust threatening the eyes of the lower sawyer ..." The Observer.
Photos: Black & White
Contents
Introduction
Author's Preface
Chapter I Early Associations
Chapter II The Old Country Business
Chapter III Timber
Chapter IV The Carpenter's Shop
Chapter V Tools
Chapter VI Work on the Farm
Chapter VII Wooden Pumps
Chapter VI I I Roofs
Chapter IX Work on the New House
Chapter X Work at Water-mills
Chapter XI Wind-mill Repairs
Chapter XI I Undertaking
Chapter XIII Furniture Repairs
Chapter XIV The Outlook
Glossary and Index