The Edward Barnsley Workshop, where we have been making furniture since 1923, is set in idyllic surroundings in rural Hampshire, high on a ridge overlooking beech and yew woods with magnificent views to the South Downs.
We design individual pieces for individual clients. Browse the categories listed to view examples of our recent work, which include library steps, a bridge table, a card table, jewellery boxes, stools and breadboards. As well as working to commission, we also make some furniture for our showroom.
When we are asked to make a dining table we take care to fulfil the client's requirements. James Ryan, the Barnsley Workshop designer, will make a measured plan of the client's room. He notes the position of doorways, openings, windows and furniture, and tries to ensure diners will not be forced to tuck in their elbows or to squeeze in to let someone pass. These considerations help determine the ideal shape of a table for a particular room. This process helps the client decide whether they would prefer a fixed or extending dining table.
Our chairs have shaped components and design details to make them attractive and very comfortable. These features call for laminating processes to make curved crest rails, back bars and seat rails. We make special jigs and templates specific to each chair design. As a result our chairs can be quite time consuming to make, but the result is a comfortable, high quality chair that will last. The Grace chair has become our most popular chair design. It has a deeply curved back, which for most people makes it really comfortable to sit in.
I am James Ryan, the designer and manager of the Edward Barnsley Workshop. It is my job to guide our clients through the commissioning process and make it easy and enjoyable. We take on commissions of all sizes, from a small box to a set of over a hundred dining chairs for an Oxford college. Clients quickly appreciate how well made our furniture is. This is immediately apparent when you open a smooth-running well-fitted drawer or sit in one of our really comfortable dining-chairs. What is not so obvious is how we ensure customer satisfaction throughout the commissioning process.
We are seeking your support to help raise 400,000 to fund a building project. We plan to build a workshop extension in 2018 and then to reorganise and sympathetically refurbish our existing listed buildings. These changes will enable us to train more furniture-making apprentices, and to improve the way we inform visitors about the work we do today and the heritage of the Edward Barnsley Workshop. Since 1980 the Edward Barnsley Educational Trust has provided training to over sixty people in Edward Barnsley's workshop.
We use the best materials. We buy the best quality logs, sawn to our own specification. We season the boards in our drying sheds. We select the components for our furniture with care. We want all the components in a piece of furniture to match, so we often use timber that comes from a single tree. Our furniture will tolerate the inevitable shrinkage and expansion of timber components caused by environmental humidity fluctuations. We make sure the grain direction of inlay lines follows the grain direction of the groundwork.
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