I built this fence 20 years ago whilst working for the National Trust at Ide Hill in Kent, we used storm blown sweet chestnut which came from the wood a few yards away. I visited the property for the first time again last weekend and was pleased to see the fence is holding up well. Sweet chestnut has a high…
My friends Michail and Hannes visited last week, we visited Owen Jones in the Lakes and the Carpenters Fellowship Frame event where we were all demonstrating hand tool woodworking. It was school holidays so Ollie came with us. Lots of good times. This is Owen working on a basket. He lives on the banks of Coniston and let us take…
Yesterday was a day of meetings in London, Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust were very supportive of the work we are doing with the Heritage Crafts Association, the advisor on heritage issues at DCMS had some useful leads and the highlight of the day was meeting Mark Jones director of the V&A who as well as being an advocate of modern…
Last craftsperson from Lincre woodland festival this is Ben Willis. He was an apprentice with Mike Abbott 3 years ago and is a very competent pole lathe turner. He is also a freelance journalist and has written for I think he said the Telegraph and Guardian on environmental issues. At Linacre he was turning rounders bats out of the gorgeous…
Another fine craftsman at Linacre was John Richardson chairmaker. He makes fine ladderback chairs in the arts and crafts tradition. John lives on a narrowboat in Leicestershire and has a second boat as a workshop, this keeps his overheads low and his chairs are very reasonable though he is really semi retired now and does not make so many. I…
Last weekend I was turning at Linacre woodland festival near Chesterfield. It is a lovely small local event in nice woodland alongside the reservoir. There are some excellent craftspeople demonstrating and we stay on site and have a nice evening round the camp fire….sometimes work can be very pleasurable indeed. It is a family friendly event with story telling for…
I first heard about Patterson’s many years ago whilst I was still working for the National Trust as a forester. It was an unusual property for the Trust to take on because it was relatively modern industrial heritage. On Tuesday I finally got to visit. I was in Northern Ireland partly to work on the forthcoming National Occupational Standards for…
English Heritage recently bought a silversmiths workshop in Birmingham Simon Thurley was quoted as saying “We have stepped in to save JW Evans because it is one of the most important Victorian and Edwardian manufacturies in existence. Its loss would not just be for Birmingham but the world. We now need to secure its long term future as a business…
Yesterday I visited the kutrite scissor works in Sheffield, I have written about them before here and here, they are wonderful chaps, the three guys working there have 150 years experience of the cutlery trade between them. This is Cliff, the “putter togetherer” that is the official job title that you would advertise in the days when there were 60…
I just downloaded some pictures I took on my last London trip for the the Heritage Crafts Association committee meeting last Sunday. We meet in a basement room just round the corner from Charing Cross which is kindly provided free of charge for us. Charing Cross tube station has rather nice artwork with images of medieval craftsmen at work and…
