Books on Wood, Lumber & Trees
Hoadley, R. Bruce.
Understanding Wood.
Newtown, CT: Taunton Press, 2000.
2nd ed. ISBN: 1561583588
A great guide to understanding why wood does what it does (warp, check, move, break, etc.). Hoadley covers the different types of wood movement and how to cope with them in great detail.
Latham, Bryan
Timber: A Historical Survey of its Development and
Distribution
London: George Harrap, 1957.
To my knowledge, the only book in English that covers the timber trade prior to the 18th Century. While the greatest portion of the book is on 18th to 20th Century trade, there is a significant amount devoted to the Middle Ages and Renaissance, albeit scattered throughout several sections of the book. Latham does not cite sources for his information although this is not as bad as it sounds since there is a bibliography for each chapter and much of the medieval material is drawn from the English Royal household accounts. Information in the book should be double-checked since they have occasionally been superseded by newer research.
Rackham, Oliver
"The Growing and Transport of timber and underwood" in
McGrail, Sean, ed. Woodworking Techniques before A.D.
1500: Papers presented to a Symposium at Greenwich in September,
1980, together with edited discussion.
Oxford: B.A.R., 1982.
ISBN: 0860541592
A provocative article that forced me to reexamine most of my assumptions about the medieval English timber trade. Among the points that Rackham makes are the following:
- Only about 15% of England was forested at the time of the Domesday Book and that percentage declined over the course of the period.
- Woodland has been systematically managed in England since the Anglo-Saxon period.
- The typical tree used for building lumber was quite small: averaging 8 inches in diameter and about 20 feet long. Larger timbers were quite expensive and were generally reserved for large projects such as cathedrals or royal castles.
- Medieval England imported large amounts of timber from the Baltic, particularly in the form of boards. The widespread importation of boards and the lack of large timber accounts for the late appearance of the sawmill in England.
- Thin boards should be assumed to be imported unless evidence exists to the contrary.
Rackham, Oliver
Trees & Woodland in the British Landscape: The complete
history of Britain's trees, woods & hedgerows.
London: Phoenix Press, 1990.
ISBN: 1842124692
Essentially a longer version of the article cited above, covering British woodlands from the Romans to the present. The book includes the complete citations for many of the assertions in the article as well as the results of ten years of additional research.
Rackham, Oliver
The History of the Countryside
London:
Phoenix Press, 2000.
ISBN: 1842124404
Content
Tossavainen, Jouko
"Dutch Forest Products Trade in the Baltic until 1648"
MA Thesis, Department of History, University of
Jyväskylä, Finland, December 1994
Jouko Tossavainen's MA thesis on the Dutch lumber trade with the Baltic. While the focus is on the late 16th Century and later, there is a lot of information here on earlier periods as well. Found on the Web - here.
Contents © 2003 Gary R. Halstead