Construction Industry

The largest structures in medieval and early modern times were monasteries, churches, cathedrals, castles and city walls. York, with its 13th-cent. Motte and bailey castle, known as Clifford's Tower, the huge cathedral (the largest Gothic church in England, 13 to 15 cents.), And complete city walls, gives a classical composite. City limits on the height of the pre-Reformation period contained 40 churches, chapels, 9, 4 monasteries, 4 friaries, 16 hospitals and 9 guild halls to the various subjects.

Most of these were built of stone, while housing and other functional buildings such as farms or mills, depending on local materials, were of wood, clay or brick. Roofing materials were thatch, peat, wood, tiles, slates and lead. While there were many local styles, construction, mainly in stone, were everywhere, according to Mason's abilities and thus the traditional importance and high status in trade.

The most important 16th-and 17th-cent. buildings was the town and country houses for nobility and gentry, and public buildings of churches and town halls. In 1514 Cardinal Wolsey began building the largest house in England, Hampton Court further extended by Henry VIII. More typical, but still in style, was Hardwick Hall (Derbys.), started in 1591 by Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury. Given its size, it was built very quickly, to be finished and occupied by the 1597th Detailed end of this period and after the great fire in 1666, was St Paul's Cathedral, designed by Wren, which began in the 1673rd

During the 18th Cent. growing population and sustained economic prosperity generated a strong increase in activity in the building. The urban construction boom of the Georgian era is appreciated in the magnificent architecture of Edinburgh, Bath, Stamford, and Dublin, but can be seen in many other towns and villages. In rural areas, modernization of agriculture has led to the construction of new farm houses and buildings, walls, roads and ditches. Quarries, both of stone and slate, and brick and tiles, expanded rapidly to meet demand.

The Industrial Revolution in the later 18th and early 19th Cent. required major construction projects and a more functional architecture. The new factory buildings, such as cotton spinners are still uncertain at Cromford, Styal, and New Lanark, was often on a large scale, and has grown in size and complexity, as the industry expanded in the centers, like Manchester and Glasgow. Transportation revolution that accompanied industrialization also led to large canal, railways, bridges, and harbor construction projects. The Iron Bridge over the Severn at Coalbrookdale (1777-9) was the first to use the large tendons in the industrial age in its construction. It was also put to good effect by Victorian engineers in Crystal Palace (1851) and the great train sheds at major train stations like Waverley (Edinburgh), Temple Meads (Bristol), and St Pancras (London). Later, in the late 19th and early 20 Cent., Steel and concrete was extensively used in construction, the largest construction projects, excluding buildings, bridges, highways, tunnels and gas and oil platforms.

 

Construction sector has always been an important barometer of the economy seen, for example in the building boom, which coincided with the era of the late 19th Cent. prosperity, more modest in parts of Britain during the recovery of the 1930s, and during the years of reconstruction after the Second World War.