This phenomenon is largely due to the advent of Gothic architecture in England and its development into what would become known as the English Perpendicular style. This style is defined by high, graceful curves and allowed for taller, more stable walls than the heavy, domed construction of Romanesque architecture which had defined Anglo-Saxon and immediate post-conquest stone construction.

This coincides with periods of relative prosperity in England meaning that communities have both the desire and means to improve their civic amenities such as churches. From the latter half of the twelfth century, the Northern city of Carlisle is a boomtown for European silver production while the South grows wealthy on the wool trade with the Low Countries. Many churches in Dorset and Hampshire are known as 'Wool Churches' - large and ornate Gothic churches built for relatively small rural populations using surplus profit from the burgeoning wool trade.

During the same period, diplomatic and military expansion of English holdings in France drives economic expansion, especially with the vast amounts of plunder looted during the Hundred Years War.