Traditional & contemporary craft courses in north Wales
handmade by you in
wernog wood
A collective learning experience to build a traditional mortice & tenon timber framed structure
with an opportunity to build your own structure
See course details, dates, costs, tutors & stories from students below
Perhaps you have plans for a building project of your own, or would simply enjoy to try a new skill together with others.
Taught by brothers Joe and Fred Farey, you will learn about the timber you will be using, the design process and the basic techniques of timber frame construction. See the section below to read about an exciting new opportunity to build your own structure on this course.
Over five days, you will collectively build a simple frame from start to finish using mortice and tenon joints. In the process you will set out and mark up the frames, make oak pegs and drill the offset peg holes. You will be using shoulder planes, chisels, marking gauges and a chain morticer.
At the end of the course we will hopefully erect the finished frame which will be full of the character you give it.
As there is regular demand for students to build their own timber frame structure during this course, we now offer this option. If you are interested in going home with a structure for your own use, we are welcoming students to put forward designs that will be considered by our tutors to be chosen as the course project.
As only one structure can be made during these 5 days, the ‘winning’ design will be chosen based on building size, complexity of the structure, achievability within the time and merit of the design as a teaching opportunity.
We will consider single storey structures which are no bigger than 30m2. Our tutors run a sawmill and will supply and deliver timber to Wernog Wood, ready for your course. The cost of timber and delivery of the final structure to your home will be additional to the costs mentioned below, depending on the design of your building. Design ideas will need to be submitted 2 months before the course start date to be considered.
Tuition fees - £595 per person
or
Building and designing your own structure - £2,500
If you would like to your own structure to be considered, it will be £2,500 plus the cost of timber, unless it is a particularly small building when it may be less. This is good value all round as it includes the following: Course tuition fee for one student, design consultation with tutors and delivery of timber to Wernog Wood
Tea, coffee and simple lunch included in your course price
We also offer accommodation & evening meals
Click here to see what we offer
This course is aimed at adults, aged 18yrs + and is suitable for beginners to those with experience
Brothers Fred & Joe Farey work with their father Adrian as part of the Elwy Working Woods, a co-operative near Abergele, north Wales. Their social enterprise was established to create jobs and to pass on woodland skills to the next generation of woodland workers. As well as teaching the traditional techniques of timber frame building, they run a small sawmill and other woodland management projects.
You can watch a short video of their project here.
Building with green timber makes it possible to enjoy the quietness of using hand tools but is also a low-cost building technique which can be applied to any scale project from a characterful garden shed, conservatory or a complete house.
If you enjoy a read, they recommend Timber Frame Construction: All About Post-and-Beam Building by Jack A Sobon.
Stories from our students
Wernog Wood is a wonderful place and hosts absolutely amazing people. The course had perhaps the best teachers of my life and like-minded people without any experience and we managed to do a timber frame in a week. The course exceeded all my expectations and the teachers were absolutely awesome. real professionals and knew how to tell things so that everyone understood them. Lots of practical tips, good tools, working facilities and lots of humour. - Aki
'The course was booked as a surprise birthday present for me and wow what an amazing present, I couldn't have dreamt of anything better. From the second I arrived and met Claire & Rob their naturally warming nature puts you at ease and welcomes you to Wernog Wood. - Steve
'Just what I needed: I’m an architectural technologist. It’s one thing to design but another thing to build especially when you don’t understand how the different materials behave. It’s given me insight necessary for designing.' - Kae
'This was a fantastic course, with the right mix of theory and practice. We were cutting wood within the first hour of arriving, after the safety briefings and introduction. Joe and Fred were immensely skilled and experienced, and combined this with a clear straight forward way of explaining what to do.' - Paul
'The tutors where a rare mix being both knowledgeable and patient with a remarkable ability to communicate well, articulating some quite complex ideas and techniques with ease. Claire and Rob are very interesting, capable people who extended a warm welcome to all, offering hospitality that is unparalleled in both its quality and inclusivity. They are genial hosts and brilliant people to be around. Rob's pizza was superb and Claire’s lunches where something to look forward to.' - Rich
'I have been on a woodwork course in the past which included a lot of talking and discussion. I much preferred the practical nature of this course and it helped me understand concepts a lot better.' - Ben
Upcoming Dates
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or
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