Our Story

Where It Began

A Workshop Built on Principle

In 1987, Thomas Barrington opened a small workshop in the Cotswolds with a straightforward belief: furniture should be built to last longer than the people who make it. He had spent fifteen years restoring antiques and watching pieces from the 1700s hold together better than items made decades later.

That observation shaped everything we do. Thomas started with a single commission—a walnut writing desk for a retired professor in Oxford. That desk remains in the same family today, now used by the professor's granddaughter.

Traditional woodworking workshop with hand tools

Our Materials

Wood With a Story

Every board that enters our workshop can be traced to a specific woodland. We work primarily with oak from Gloucestershire, ash from Devon, and walnut sourced through a single trusted supplier in Kent. These relationships matter because consistency matters.

Timber arrives at our workshop and rests for months before we touch it. This acclimatisation period prevents the warping and splitting that plague furniture made from improperly seasoned wood. Patience at this stage means stability for generations.

Stacked seasoned timber boards in woodworking workshop

Our Values

What Guides Our Work

Time Well Spent

We allocate eight to twelve weeks for each piece. Rushing creates problems that emerge years later. Taking time creates furniture that improves with age.

Honest Materials

Solid timber throughout. No veneers hiding particleboard. No shortcuts that compromise structural integrity. What you see is what holds your furniture together.

Human Scale

Our workshop remains deliberately small. Each maker knows each project. This intimacy allows for attention that production lines cannot match.

Craftsman working on detailed wood joinery

Our People

Makers With Histories

Six furniture makers currently work in our Cotswolds workshop. The newest has been with us for eight years; the most experienced for twenty-three. This continuity means institutional knowledge accumulates rather than leaving when individuals do.

Each maker started as an apprentice and progressed through years of guided learning before leading their own projects. This traditional approach takes longer but produces craftspeople who understand not just technique but judgement.

View Our Collections

"I commissioned a library of bookcases for our home in Edinburgh. The team came up, measured every wall, and created something that fits perfectly. Twelve years on, not a single shelf has sagged despite holding hundreds of volumes."

Dr. James Thornton

Edinburgh