Mallinson Ltd - woodwork courses in Dorset. Perfect short breaks for everyone.

Firstly, a quick reminder that there is still time to buy gift certificates for Christmas - the last posting day in next Tuesday 20th, or we can email these gift certificates anytime up to Christmas. (And yes, we are anticipating and are prepared for the usual panicked phone calls for those last minute email gift certificates on Christmas Eve!)

You can buy online or call 01460 221 102.

The gift certificates are very flexible. The most straightforward are certificates for a monetary value, which can be redeemed against any course or Crafty Camping. Alternatively, you can buy a certificate for a specific course.

If you have a particular course in mind we do strongly recommend reserving a place on buying the certificate or very soon afterwards. The spring bowl carving course is full already and there are currently just a couple of places left on the spring chair making and pole lathe courses.

That said, don't forget that our one day courses can be booked for any available weekday date that suits you throughout the year - you can't be more flexible than that!

Great News For Crafty Campers

We had been hoping to open the Crafty Camping bookings for 2012 in December. This has now been delayed until January - but for a very good and positive reason.

As many of our recent guests already know, we have been applying for finance to upgrade our camping facilities and the good news is that we heard just yesterday, the 16th, that our efforts have been successful and that all of our plans will be going ahead in the New Year.

I shall be updating the website and releasing full details over the coming weeks, but as our regular newsletter readers are always the first to hear, here is a sneak preview of what will be on offer in 2012:

Four new luxury tents - one 18ft yurt, one shepherd's hut, a large tipi and a geodome. These will be located in their own clearings in the top of the woods and each will have their own private (flushing) loo and hot woodland shower along with king-sized bed, linen, wood burner and the usual BBQ facilities, hammocks etc.
The existing three bell tents will also be upgraded with decks, hammocks, deck chairs and night lighting, and will continue to share the now legendary woven willow woodland shower as well as upgraded loos and washing facilities.
The old yurt is being converted into a sauna and the dining/kitchen tent is being upgraded with a new larger pizza oven, BBQ/fire and weatherproofing for those chilly nights.
We are also making a new 24ft yurt that will replace the old tipi and this will be a communal facility with sofas, games and a fire as well as the shop and local information.

The list goes on but as you can imagine we are over the moon that this project is going ahead.

We still have to finalise the details of the work schedule and therefore will announce in January the exact date that the new facilities will be opening and available for booking.

The prices (now split into 3 seasonal prices) will be as follows:

Yurt, tipi, shepherd's hut and geodome with en suite facilities: £100 low, £110 mid and £125 high season.
Bell tents: £70 low, £80 mid and £90 high season.

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Adults Only Camping / Family Weeks

We have had some fantastic feedback from our guests from last year and are acting on all of the very helpful notes in the visitor book. Thank you to everyone who took the trouble to make suggestions.

One thing that was a concern in our first season was that trying to mix romantic/peaceful getaways with family holidays was not always a match made in heaven and we have been giving this a lot of thought over recent months.

The site is primarily designed for adults and the peace and tranquility is very much a part of the experience. For this reason we had thought about making the site adult-only for 2012. However, we have had some fantastic letters from families saying how much they enjoyed staying in the woods together and it seems like a great shame to stop this entirely. Therefore, we have decided on a way forward whereby we will have four family weeks during the year: the three half terms and one week towards the end of the summer holidays. The rest of the time it will be adults-only.

(Of course, the exception would be when a group of friends books the entire site: on these occasions children can be accommodated for an additional £10 per night per child.)

I hope that this prove a successful middle way that will enable us to offer a great experience to everyone, whilst maintaining the unique atmosphere of the Woodland Workshop. If you are interested in booking camping please do email us now, and we will contact you before opening booking to the public. We still need to finalize the opening date, but this will be around April sometime.

And Finally ...

And finally, I would like to thank everyone for their good wishes and patience during a year when I have been off work with 'Cluster Headache'. It has been a long slog and frustrating at times but I am delighted to be able to report that I am now feeling much better and although I'm still off work recuperating I am very hopeful that if things continue as they are I will be back at work in time for the courses in April - fingers crossed.

I would also like to thank Adam, Helen, Tom, Mike and Sharon for keeping the show on the road while I have been unable to work. It is a little worrying quite how well everything is running without me! If nothing else I have learnt the very valuable lesson of how to let go and delegate. I am longing to get back to the woods and my tools, a prospect make all the more exciting by all the camping development work that will be going on before I return.

I hope that all of our readers have a very happy Christmas, that 2012 will be a good year and that we see lots of you down here in the woods to get away from it all.

As always, thanks for reading

Guy & the team