Workshop Location

The Yew Tree Furnituremaking Workshop is located in a small village, set in beautiful and inspiring Downland landscape on the southern rim of the Thames Valley close to the market towns of Wantage in Oxfordshire and Lambourn in Berkshire.

London, Birmingham and Bristol are each about an hour and a half distant; Southampton and High Wycombe about an hour; and Swindon, Newbury and Oxford each half an hour.

The workshop, originally built in the 19th Century for the village carpenter and wheelwright, was completely upgraded when I moved here several years ago, with extensions added to house a dedicated machine-shop and my own design studio.

The main workshop has a large open-plan workbench/assembly area, with the adjacent machine-room fully-equipped with modern 3-phase industrial machinery meeting all safety regulations.

The bench-room is large enough to accommodate up to four trainee furnituremakers at a time alongside my own work – these low numbers ensure that every student is given as much one-to-one tuition as they require throughout the course.

The whole workshop layout and routines are based on my own professional working practices – which provides a natural working template for students’ own future practice as self-employed furnituremakers.

If you would like to visit the workshop or find out more about the training courses, then use the Contact page to email or phone me directly.

Course Fees

Full Furniture & Cabinetmaking Training Course (45 wks)

The cost of the full furnituremaking course is £14,000, which covers all tuition, benchspace and use of workshop equipment. To confirm a place on the course you will need to send me a booking deposit of £2,000. The remaining fees are due in two parts: £6,000 on starting and £6,000 at the start of the fifth month.

Students also need between £1,200 (medium-budget tools) and £1,800 (higher quality tools) to cover the cost of purchasing a full complement of quality hand-tools and equipment, and up to about £800 for the timber and hardware for their workbench and design-and-making projects.

Intermediate & Advanced Furnituremaking Courses (4-12 wks)

The cost of short intermediate and advanced furniture and cabinet making courses depends on each student’s aims and the time they have available:

• 4 weeks £2,200
• 6 weeks £3,000
• 8 weeks £3,600
• 10 wks  £4,000
• 12 wks  £4,500

A booking deposit of £750 is needed to confirm a place on these courses.

Students will need to supplement their existing kit with some additional tools, as well as purchase timber etc. for their making projects.

Introductory 'Taster' Courses (2 wks)

The cost of the two week introductory course in furnituremaking, inclusive of all materials and the use of tools, is £1,200 in total, with a £500 deposit to confirm a place in advance.