Summary

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Suffolk and Norfolk were the most prosperous industrial counties in Britain. The inscription in a Suffolk church I thank my God and ever shall, It was the sheep that paid for all sums it up perfectly. For three hundred years wealth poured into Suffolk, first from the wool staple and then from the cloth trade. Most of the churches were rebuilt and adorned during this period, and have been rightly praised. It is strange that so little notice has been taken of Suffolk houses. Suffolk has no building stone, but until Tudor times was rich in oak forests. Men have been building with timber since the earliest times, and by the Middle Ages had become master-carpenters with an immense skill in making and enriching timberwork. Not all of this went into churches, although, from a tradition which gave rise to the epithet seely [bless,d] Suffolk, perhaps the best did. The timber-framed houses, however, had their own Golden Age which reached its zenith by the Great