Hi Mo,

I have checked through my books and can now advise you better on this topic and have taken the liberty of extracting and quoting a small passage from The Repair of Historic Timber Structures by Dr. David Yeomans (ISBN 0-7277-3213-7) where he says:-

"re The New Carpentry

These developments are also dealt with in contemporary carpenters manuals, of which the most important are by Price, Nicholson, Tredgold and Newlands. Francis Price (1733) produced the first, well-illustrated book on carpentry. It was comprehnsive and above all the most accurate of the books appearing in the first half of the 18th century. Peter Nicholson, who first published in 1792, and Thomas Tredgold(1820) described the situation round the turn of the 19th century. A large number of titles were published in the name of Peter Nicholson, continuing till the mid 19th century, while Tredgold's work was revised and updated throughout the century. James Newlands also provides a good account of carpentry at that time."

It would therefore appear that Wooley and Thomlinson were already working in "The New Carpentry" style at least 13 years before the publicatation of Francis Price's book. Can you please reconfirm your date for this work and also provide a full reference re the Peterson, Charles E. and Nelson, Lee H. publication and hopefully also a weblink.

Your discovery is more than just a little exciting being very relevant to our understanding of the devlopment of The New Carpentry style and thus this topic really should have been posted on the TTRAG forum where we could solicit further expert advice.

David Yeomans was our structural lecturer on the Masters course at The Weald & Downland and so if you require I can raise this matter directly with him on your behalf.

Regards

Ken Hume