Berkshire Woodturners Association was formed on 28th October 1991 by Keith Sherwood and a group of woodturning friends who used to meet in Keith’s workshop.
Here is Keith Sherwood’s own description of how Berkshire Woodturners was formed:
“After working many happy years in the film industry as a “special effects” man I decided to find employment elsewhere that had less stress. Eventually I found employment working in a tool shop in Reading. Having a reasonable knowledge of engineering and tools I seemed to slot in nicely.
When the week was over, I decided to buy my first lathe, which I purchased from Rob Bonner, a Coronet No. 1.
During the week two customers came in and said they had just come back from Devon where they had been on a wood turning course with Oliver Plant, it was highly recommended, so I immediately booked a 3 day course which I found to be most enjoyable.
Back at the shop I made a bee line for any customer that showed an interest in wood turning and through this I made many good friends. They started to bring into the shop projects they had made to show me, so in return I invited a few of them to my house to show them what I had made.
After a while I was getting as many as 16 people coming on a Thursday, which was my day off. A few of us decided to put some feelers out about starting a wood turning club. We went to the Mytchett wood turning club 2 or 3 times to see how it was run and to get some ideas.
Danny Cleary found our first club venue, which was a convent in Finchampstead Road, Wokingham on the 28th October 1991 and had 41 attendances. Since then the club has grown and has been going for fifteen years and I hope it will continue to do so.
Keith Sherwood, 2006
Since that time the club has moved to several other venues, people have come and gone, and a lot of shavings have been cleared off the workshop floor, but the club has retained the same friendly atmosphere, welcoming and nurturing new members.
Keith Sherwood’s invaluable contribution to the club is commemorated with a Trophy which is awarded each December for a turned piece which receives the most votes from the Members.
A short history of the Association 1991 to 2022
Updated August 2022
Brian Attewell (formerly honorary lifetime President) joined at the beginning, along with a close friend Mick Pither who worked at Broadmoor Hospital. In 1987, the year of the great storm, they obtained wood from a beech tree from the hospital grounds and established their common interest in wood turning. They had met Keith Sherwood at the Qual Tools shop when purchasing turning tools 4 years prior to the club starting.
Brian and Mick were both highly involved in developing the club in the years ahead. In 1998 Mick had one of his projects featured in “Woodturning” magazine, a chair made from 526 pieces of boxwood that Brian had obtained. Ever ‘canny’ Brian managed to avoid being on the committee until he was finally persuaded to be Catering Manager (aka teaboy!). In due course Brian became the club’s long-standing Chairman before retiring from that position in 2021.
Over the years the club grew peaking at around 83 members in the mid 1990’s with 8 on the waiting list and regular monthly attendance figures of over 50 members. This necessitated several meeting venue changes over the years including St Mary’s Hall in Winnersh; Hurst Village Hall then at Trademark Windows premises in Wokingham before finally settling at Priestwood Community Centre in Bracknell.
Monthly Competitions have long been a key feature of how the club encourages and supports the development of members skills. The ‘Skill Category” system, introduced in 1995, remains much the same today. Interestingly the 1995 Winter Newsletter notes of complaints about the high standard in the Beginners category which was putting off some from taking part — Nothing changes!
Fortunate acquisitions, grants, donations, and bequests helped the club obtain a comprehensive collection of equipment for demonstrations at both the meeting hall and, frequently, at local shows and external events. Having several lathes has also enabled regular workshops and hands on club nights to feature as a core part of the club’s commitment to sharing knowledge and experience between members.
Early on the club was also fortunate in acquiring excellent audio-visual equipment for use at meetings. This provides all members with a high-quality audio-visual (AV) experience at club night demonstrations. New high-resolution AV equipment was also purchased in 2020 with the help of grant monies from the AWGB (Association of Woodturners of Great Britain – to which the club is affiliated). This enables the club to stream live demonstrations from the meeting hall over Zoom, which is easy to use by members who are unable to attend. Similarly, Interactive Remote Demonstrations (IRD’s) are now an embedded feature of the woodturning demonstrators’ world. The club has embraced these as part of the future.
Over the years the demonstrators’ list has included most of the great and good of British Professional Turners plus, more recently, several via ‘Zoom’ further afield in the UK and from Overseas. Gary Rance was an early professional demonstrator for the club and since 1998 has demonstrated to us some twenty times! It is therefore fitting that in 2022 Gary kindly agreed to become the club’s first official patron.
The Club has fortunately always been able to access a good stock of timber amassed from various sources and stored by ‘willing’ members for sale at an annual auction. Referrals of “trees down” regularly trigger a squad of members armed with chainsaws and trailers.
In May 2019 we were very proud when George Creber, our youngest junior member, had a bowl shortlisted in the British Woodturner of the Year exhibition run by the Guild of Master Craftsman. Also, in 2019 the club were pleased to win the “Team Entry” prize at the Open Day at Surrey Association of Woodturners.
The Covid19 Pandemic in 2020 /2021 meant that live meetings couldn’t be held. However, the Club kept going with remote monthly meetings, online workshops and demonstrations using Zoom. The community spirit of the club was also maintained throughout Covid with regular virtual coffee mornings and joint meetings with other nearby Clubs, notably Kennet Valley Woodturners.
Club membership has regularly fluctuated over the years as people come and go. The Pandemic heavily affected our woodturning fraternity, like many other organisations, but in 2022 the membership stands at a healthy 50 and is growing.
The Club’s Constitution for its governance has remained relatively unchanged. Malcolm Cleaver is the current Chairperson, elected in 2021, upholding the solid foundations established by the club’s founders, particularly to provide a welcoming and nurturing environment for all new members of whatever ability.
The club has retained the same friendly atmosphere enjoyed by over 150 members throughout its 30 plus years. It continues to punch above its weight in the terms of quality and accessibility of its demonstrations, plus the members regularly exhibiting outstanding skills for their creations.