<p>Building practices need to be interpreted in their historical context to understand how they develop. In the town of Bury St. Edmunds, the practice of reusing timber, a sustainable practice, appears at an important social and environmental juncture. This article investigates the local context around timber recycling from 1450 to 1700, a period of increasing reliance on a market economy and the sale of rural woodlands from the local abbey to private landlords. A survey in the town found eight examples of buildings that were constructed with reused timber. However, reusing timber may not have taken place with the intention of conserving woodlands. While woodlands did diminish through time, recycling could also have been influenced by changing building styles and local access to new materials available thanks to new technology. This indicates that, while reuse is associated with conservation or scarcity, in Bury St. Edmunds people may have increasingly recycled due to the town’s specific social history and building culture.</p>