All our courses are project based and designed to be fun, relaxing and informative. They are suitable for men and women, complete novices and experienced woodworkers or crafts-people alike, whether you are keen to discover more about a particular skill or simply want a relaxing break away from it all.

All courses are held in the woodland by Higher Holditch Farm, where we've created a 'woodland workshop' that is cool and shaded in summer, cosy and warm in winter. It is peaceful and quiet all year round - guaranteed to help you feel you really are 'getting away from it all'.

Our regular courses have a minimum age of eighteen, and there are never more than 10 guests on a course. We also offer courses designed to cater for children and accompanying adults, and on these we are able to take children aged 10 and up.

All courses are led by me, Guy Mallinson, personally, with the assistance of other skilled craftsman and specialists in their field, including Mace Brightwater, Karen Hansen, Veronica Hudson, Malcolm Seal and James Verner.

Guests have the use of a set of very high quality tools and we provide all the materials needed to complete the projects. Our materials are personally and locally sourced from sustainable, managed woodland. For the courses that include lunches we provide delicious fresh meals cooked by my wife, Boo, and these are locally sourced as well, along with tea and coffee and biscuits and cake.

Green Woodworking

Our woodworking courses specialise in 'green woodworking' skills. Green woodworking means both green as in 'unseasoned wood' and green as in environmentally preferable to the alternatives. A well-managed woodland is a perfect sustainable resource.

Green woodworking offers the opportunity to see the whole process from start to finish - from log to end product. Being unseasoned, it is soft and easy to work with hand tools and working this way offers a unique insight into the properties of wood. It also ensures anyone can do it!

The hand craft techniques and the types of wooden equipment we teach and use are both ancient, as well as being dust free and quiet. Guests have use of all the the high quality tools required, sharpened prior to each course. Green wood is also affordable and readily available. The scale of the timber that is extracted for the good management of a woodland is too small for economical conversion into planks. The timber that we use would be otherwise destined for the log pile and has little or no commercial value apart from being cut into firewood. However, the species of tree that we use are the beautiful hardwoods that any other cabinetmaker would routinely use in fine furniture.

When using green wood the logs are cleft (split along the grain) rather than sawn and so we are working much more with the nature of the wood. As a result of this cleaving process, the grain runs along the length of the piece whereas a sawn piece of wood will usually have the grain running diagonally across it. This 'cross grain' is a weak point. This means that pieces made using green woodworking techniques are stronger than mass produced counterparts.

What's more, because the wood is worked to shape before it dries, there isn't the tension build-up found in the drying of large sawn boards of dry timber. For this reason green woodwork has less tendency to split and crack as it is drying and we explain how to use the drying process to your advantage.

You'll find green woodworking processes relatively straightforward: the basic techniques can be picked up very quickly by everyone - even those with little or no experience, including children. This means that everyone - including complete beginners - goes away from one of our courses with a finished product to be proud of. Having said that, experienced cabinetmakers also gain a great deal of satisfaction and insight from learning about this specialist area of woodworking.