Contact Address, Elmfield, Seagrave Road, Sileby, LE12 7TR Uk Telephone mobile 07526 750158
About Me ~
I am 63 and I enjoy a varied and interesting life. I was born in Hertfordshire and was brought up in a farming family. I recall many happy hours spent roaming the woods of the Chilterns with my collie, learning about the wild life and the trees there. I went to a village school called Liittle Gaddesden where the head teacher was Vicars Bell; known as “Ding Dong” to the pupils - but certainly not to his face! Vicars Bell was an inspirational and great promoter of different types of practical work, especially if it involved the outdoors. He had a great influence on my primary years. He wrote a number of books about Little Gaddesden village but clearly needed to follow his given name and after many years he became a Vicar!
The Outdoors continued to form my years at secondary school when I attended Ashlyns School. There was encouragement to learn and develop woodworking and horticultural skills and these captured my interests enormously.
My life changed somewhat when I left school. I completed an apprenticeship to become an auto electrical engineer and worked on many interesting, and old, cars. But the real thrill of working with wood and pursuing horticulture continued to infect my life and these have become my working passion; - as are my wife, Liz, and my three dogs who seem to share my passion for wood in almost as hungry a manner!
I moved to Leicestershire in 2000 and have loved getting to know the landscape and woods around me.
Interests~
Ernest Gimson and the arts and craft movement
I have a wide range of interests and am and the Arts and crafts period, History, horticulture, The natural world, Dogs, Water sports,
Authors who inspire me~
John Ruskin
Arthur Ransome
Richard Mabey
Roger Deakin
Peter Scott
Skills ~
Cabinet Making/ Wood Turning/Coaching Sailing & Canoeing/teaching History
Aims ~
To support local contemporary craft fairs, make usable affordable wood items that add interest and enhance your surroundings, use only sustainable U.K hardwoods.
Memberships ~
Country Crafts Association promoting hand made crafts. www.countrycraftsassociation.co.uk
Association of wood turners
R.H.S
Arthur Ransome Society
