Orchard Barn

Contact Name: Sarah Partridge

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Address:
Orchard Barn
Bildeston Road
Ringshall, Stowmarket
Suffolk
IP14 2LY

Orchard Barn

What does this mean?

This craft course provider has been awarded Bronze status for receiving 1 or more 5 star ratings from previous students.

The Students' Choice award ensures that course providers get recognised for their efforts in the teaching and practice of UK craft.

They also allow tutors to gain valuable feedback on their courses and for new students to find the course that's right for them.

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About Orchard Barn

My background as an organic small holder and yoga teacher have provided me with the skills and experience to manage this off-grid community project/centre. I love to build using low tech traditional methods that make good use of natural materials sourced directly from the local landscape. I look forward to welcoming you to Orchard Barn and enabling you to learn practical rural skills that will enhance your life and living environment ... learning from the past how to build a greener future.

Orchard Barn's Courses

An introduction to traditional timber framing

An introduction to traditional timber framing

This introduction to traditional timber framing course is for complete beginners to traditional carpentry as a method of construction. Whether you are a home-owner who wants to learn how your timber frame is constructed, or you are looking at self-build, or you are a surveyor needing to understand the strength of the frame design, this course will provide you with the basics and more. Your tutor Rick Lewis has over 30 years of timber framing and runs his own Traditional Oak Carpentry business here in mid Suffolk. He has 10...

Hurdle making course

Hurdle making course

Use the green woodworking skills of riving (controlled splitting), hewing (shaping with an axe), shaving (with a drawknife) and greenwood joinery to make the parts of a modified Suffolk gate hurdle and fit them together. Once used for making temporary enclosures for sheep, these traditional hurdles have now been slimmed down and simplified, morphing into attractive trellises, plant supports and instant fences for the modern garden. Your tutor is master bodger Will Wall. He has decades of experience of green woodwork and enjoys sharing these rural skills with both complete...

Natural building with earth and trees

Natural building with earth and trees

Learn traditional methods of converting earth into cob, daub or clay lump. Make your own earth sculpture to take home. Find out about using coppiced woodland materials in construction. Try your hand at using a shave horse and draw knife. This experience day shows you how our ancestors built with their local landscape in low-tech and sustainable ways. Building is fun and easy. Think small and local. Involve your friends and family. Celebrate a special event or birthday by having fun in our rural 17th century barn and traditional orchard....

Shave horse making at Orchard Barn, Suffolk

Shave horse making at Orchard Barn, Suffolk

Learn green woodworking skills at Orchard Barn. On this 3-day course you will construct a shave horse from scratch using traditional techniques and tools. Locally sourced green wood is used throughout. Your tutor, Will Wall has decades of experience of teaching, bodging and working with greenwood. Small group size (6) ensures plenty of individual time with the tutor. Learn how to make best use of equipment such as a shave horse and traditional hand tools - auger, side-axe, draw knife and plane. Make your own unique shave horse! This course...