ABSTRACT
In order to satisfactorily fulfil these functions there are a number of requirements for an external loadbearing wall. These are:
Up until the sixteenth century, timber was the dominant structural material for most vernacular buildings. After that time, building in brick and stone became more common for a number of reasons, including shortages of timber supplies and, perhaps more significantly, the disastrous experience of fires in towns and cities which led James I (and later, following the Great Fire of London in 1666, Charles II) to issue proclamations insisting on the use of stone or brick.
