In discussing the standard of workmanship found on English choir stalls, M. D. Anderson laments the absence of detailed records, both of the process by which such work was commissioned and of the craftsmen who were responsible for undertaking the work, before reflecting that,

This discrepancy between the high quality of workmanship displayed in surviving sets of stalls and the level of craftsmanship a modern viewer may perhaps expect in a small village church is, however, resolved when we consider the nature of crafts needs in the medieval period. ‘Local labour resources were not sufficient for a large project such as an abbey or cathedral,’ notes Patricia Basing,

There is, as we shall see, much evidence to suggest a fruitful exchange of ideas across different areas of the country and beyond – sometimes apparently even involving some movement of craftsmen – but it is important to remember that craftsmanship in wood was necessary for all communities, however small, in an era in which it was the primary material for construction. It is no surprise, then, that within the relatively small number of tradesmen and craftsmen who are depicted on misericords, carvers are amongst those who appear most frequently, with half a dozen images surviving, including one in Beverley Minster which we shall look at more closely later in this chapter. Certainly, all the surviving material evidence suggests that those who commissioned the stalls wanted the best possible work from the anonymous local carvers who they paid by the day, for, as we saw in the introduction, when stalls were being planned considerations of decoration and display appear to have figured prominently alongside considerations relating to comfort and the primary liturgical function of the furniture.