The Village Carpenter

Walter Rose was a master carpenter and the son and grandson of master carpenters. He writes of a village carpentry as it was practiced in Buckinghamshire, England, by his family in Victorian times. Their definition of carpentry was broader than that of the present day; it covered most of the woodworking done except for Wheelwright's work—from windmills to furniture, farm grates to coffins, sawpit work to haymaking tools. The importance of skill, the sense of community, and the attitudes to work and to neighbors all emerge from Rose's accounts of tools and techniques. Not incidentally, the revival of interest in old woodworking tools suggests that once more people are pursuing aims that modern technology cannot attain.The technical information presented in The Village Carpenter will be of great interest to readers who like to work with wood or who simply have an appreciation for what the craftsmen can make from that material. But no less significant is the spirit of the old time craft as the author presents it—and also the spirit that he himself represents.