Stratford-Upon-Avon is a bustling modern town, but what strikes you as you walk along the main streets in the town centre are the many beamed Tudor houses intermingled between the familiar high-street shops. But why were houses built like this in the Tudor period and how were they constructed?

The Tudor period spanned the 16th and 17th centuries when, for the first time, buildings that were not specifically designed for the upper classes could be said to have a distinctive archite…