I read in the news recently that plans are afoot to build a wooden town near Lewes in Sussex of almost 700 new homes, with another under discussion in East Anglia.

Don’t ask me about infrastructure or affordability (whatever that is anymore) or how much this will all cost; it’s the idea of wooden houses as something new, something we can tout as environmentally friendly.

For a while, the three little pigs and the great fire of London and the demise of the wonderful buildings on London Bridge did little to help the idea of timber buildings, yet many have survived for hundreds of years and today we call them “quaint” whilst planners seem to think they invented them last year, or at the very least, post 1960. What utter tosh.

Oslo is less than two hours flying time from the UK, or if you’re rowing a Viking Long Boat, between three and six days depending on the weather.

The interior fittings if this Norwegian cabin style house put our........

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