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I don't remember which came first, my love
of wood or my love of boats.
I started my boatbuilding apprenticeship at the old Crossfields
boatyard, Arnisde, famous for building Morecambe Bay Prawners
and continued at Shepherd's Boatyard on lake Windermere. Living
in the Lake District I was able to develop my interest in
all aspects of timber production from planting to harvesting
and milling through to the production of the finished product.
In 1983 we moved to the west coast of Scotland where I continued
my boatbuilding and repair business, culminating in restoring
Coch y Bondhu, a clinker built sailing dinghy once owned by
Arthur Ransome, author of the children's classic "Swallows
and Amazons". The boat now belongs to the Arthur Ransome
Society and is kept at the Windermere Steamboat Museum, close
to where I used to live. Arthur Ransome's books played a big
part in my early love of boats, so it was an eminently fitting
conclusion to my boatbuilding career in 1993.
Since then I have specialized in providing a very high quality
picture framing and restoration service, producing hand made
wooden mouldings for that extra special effect.
My woodturning interests have taken me to Italy as part of
the Sunart Oakwoods transnational project working with GAL
in Val Sabbia in the Lombardia Regione. As a keen conservationist
and environmentalist, I am a founding director of the Morvern
Community Woodland Company, established to build a sustainable
woodland and woodworking future for Morvern and the surrounding
area. I am also a member of the Sunart Oakwoods Steering Group
and the Sgillean na Coille (Wood School) Project based in
Strontian.
Some of my many interests include poultry keeping, restoring
and shooting antique and replica muzzle loading guns, restoring
stationary engines, old farm machinery and collecting and
using old woodworking tools. I can offer a very good home
to any unwanted or redundant old tools!
All these interests make me sound a very "retro"
sort of chap, but I firmly believe that wood is the material
of the future, providing both construction material and fuel
and with careful management it is completely sustainable and
should never run out.
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