For too long the art historian, with a simplistic typological approach, has dominated accounts of medieval architecture. This fresh look - from a Senior Lecturer in Medieval Archaeology - examines the people and processes which went into the construction of a great church. This involved the resources of the patron but also the skills of the craftsmen. It is the regional community of craftsmen, and the inter-regional communications between groups of craftsmen, that Dr McNeill particularly explores. Examples are taken from Britain, Ireland, France, Holland and Germany.