Suitable for: Beginners, improvers, professionals

Considerations: Physically demanding, partially outdoors

Refreshments: Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available throughout the day. We also have a fantastic on-site cafe, Embers, run by local chef Shropshire Lad.

What to wear: Sturdy shoes, clothes that you can get messy

What to bring: Cordless drill if you own one

The course:

Ideal for anyone who wants to begin learning or build on their existing green woodworking skills. You will spend a day making a bendy hazel chair from a bundle of coppice hazel rods, using a drill, saw and hammer.  No woodworking experience is necessary and you will be guided through the whole process. 

The finished product is both comfortable and attractive, and makes a useful piece of furniture for your porch, conservatory or garden.

Just make sure you have space in (or on) your car to take your chair home!

What you will learn:

- Consideration of design and comfort of chair

- How to select hazel rods 

- Bending and nailing rods together

- How to assemble a base frame

- Pilot hole drilling and nailing

Tutor: Maurice Clother, BSc(Hons) forestry, PTLLS teaching qualification, Forest School Leader (Level 3)
Associate member of ICF Member of APTGWW

"I love the simplicity of ancient woodworking techniques, harvesting green wood and making it into useful and attractive products. Although the tools are very basic, often unchanged since the iron age, there's a lot of skill to be developed in using them. I enjoy sharing my passion with eager learners."

Maurice began his green woodworking career in 1990, learning hurdle making from Ken Gaulton in Hampshire.

He then studied forestry at Bangor, completing a dissertation titled "Underwood Industries Past, Present and Future" through which he met and learned from a number of seasoned crafts people including Bill Hogarth, Hugh Roberts, Mike Abbott, Hal Wynne Jones and Gerwyn Lewis.

After a spell of working in woodland management, Maurice became a green woodwork tutor at Glasshouse College, then worked with Wye Wood Project specialising in therapeutic woodland crafts. For the last decade, Maurice has been running woodland craft courses in his own workshop and other venues.