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Traditional wood craft demos

For 2022, we’ve expanded our new Heritage Wood Crafts Zone, where you can watch Devon craftspeople at work, using ancient skills and traditional tools to make household, gardenware and charcoal.

John Williamson of Dartmoor Woodcraft makes stave baskets, identified by the Heritage Crafts Association (HCA) as a critically endangered craft which use pre-industrial green woodworking techniques such as cleaving, shaving and bending.

Jordan Harris of Dartmoor Greenwood (above), a practitioner of rural skills, including green woodworking, also specialises in conservation of woodland and hedge laying, scything, coppicing and uses horses for low impact woodland management, as well as making charcoal from coppice in the traditional way.

Steve Overthow, the UK”s only sievewright (above) will be demonstrating making his handmade sieves and riddles which he crafts at his workshop on the Somerset Levels.

Jonny Tapp of Tapp on Wood makes beautiful brushes from native wood, including beech, birch and elm and coco fibre, perfect for brushing down the potting bench.

Jodi Lou Parkin runs Grow Feral, offering traditional land management and restoration in Devon and Cornwall, along with wildflower seeds and plugs.

Come and say hello to them all in the Craft Zone, at Toby’s Garden Fest, on the left as you head up the Castle driveway, 29 and 30 April at Powderham Castle.

Picture credits: Louise Kear Photography

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