30 years of green wood courses

I set up Living Wood Training at the end of September 1985, so this September I shall be celebrating 30 years of running greenwood courses. In May 2016 I shall celebrate my 65^th birthday and with it, I shall be moving all my activities back to my workshop and garden at Greenwood Cottage. This is a year earlier than I had planned but the timing feels right.

Retirement?

This will be anything but retirement. I have another book in the pipeline and I have several orders for chairs, which should keep me busy over the winter. In March and April I shall be offering my usual personal tuition for one or two people at a time (cost £190/day for one person or £250/day for two).

Courses at Greenwood Cottage

From May 2016 I plan to run a series of 5-day greenwood chair-making courses throughout the summer in my timber-framed, wattle-and-daub workshop and the surrounding garden. These will be similar to the existing woodland courses but limited to a maximum of 4 people per course. There is a wide selection of excellent b&b accommodation in the area. Glamping facilities should be available at Brookhouse Wood and camping will be available in a nearby field belonging to the local pub. Details of these will be available in the autumn.

Here comes the Sun

30 years ago, solar power and cordless drills were still in their infancy but having recently installed solar panels to the south-facing workshop roof, I will be able to replace some of my wood-fired equipment by the power of the sun. Camp-fire kettles and wood fired steamers might be retired but you can rest assured however, that the cleaving-brake, the shaving-horse, the froe and the drawknife will continue to play a key role in all my future courses.

Course dates for 2016 at Greenwood Cottage

Here are the provisional dates for May and June 2016. All courses will run from Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm with an hour lunch-break and the cost of a course place will initially remain at £480.

May 16^th – 20^th

June 6^th – 10^th

June 20^th – 24^th

There will be more courses from July to September but dates have yet to be confirmed. I am taking provisional bookings for the May/June courses but don’t make any payments as yet. All the details will be confirmed this October (2015) and firm bookings can then be made.

One extra course this year (2015)

All the courses for this summer were fully booked this May, so for those who have expressed a desire to participate in a woodland course, I am putting on one extra course from 14^th to 19^th September (2015), cost £480 per place. If you are interested, please e-mail me to book a place as soon as you can. E-mail me for more details, or phone 01531 640005 (8am to 8pm)