Timber Grower & Furniture Craftsman
Peter Savill visits Bill Acworth at Little Hidden Farm, Hungerford
Bill Acworth is an extraordinarily talented
furniture designer and maker. When we visited
his farm in late February, he showed us two
chairs and a bed which he had made recently.
The first chair, made at Mike Abbott’s woodland
in Herefordshire, has cleft Ash legs and rungs that
have been shaped with a drawknife on a shaving
horse. The ladderback rungs are made of cleft
Oak, and show off the medullary rays to great
effect.
Most fascinating and attractive was the seat that was made of the inner bark of Wych Elm. This had been removed from the tree in spring, when the sap was rising. The bark was then cut in to strips before weaving it into a seat – an idea gleaned from traditional North American chair making where Hickory bark is used for similar purposes.
The seat of the second chair is made from a thick piece of Elm from Anglesey, and the other parts from his own farm-grown Ash. Steam bending was necessary in making some parts for both chairs.
 The structural parts are made of Ash, with attractive spokes of Hazel. |
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As reported in our 2002 Journal – Issue No. 7, p26: |
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In 1993 Bill
converted an 11
acre arable field
to a silvo-arable
agroforestry
system. Single
lines of trees were
planted at an
average of 1.5
metres (5’) between trees in the rows and cropping
alleys 12 m (36’) wide were created to suit his
harvesting machinery. The tree lines run north/south
to minimise shading of the arable crops.
Five main tree species were included for longterm
timber production:Wild Cherry, Oak,
Sycamore, Ash and Black Walnut.These were
separated by 6 m (19’) intervals in the rows. First to
crop will be the Ash and Cherry.
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