A nice place to buy some wood

[AndyT]

I went to Westonbirt Arboretum today.

On the second Sunday of every month, the Friends of Westonbirt have a wood sale. They sell timber that has had to be felled or trimmed in the normal maintenance cycle of keeping the place going.

This is the wood stock at the moment:

They have oak, ash, beech, cedar, larch, holm oak, and yew, and probably some others as well. Some air dried, some kilned. Obviously it's not a commercial timber yard, but it does have the distinction of being run by some very friendly and helpful volunteers, who will happily haul their stacks about to find what you want. Pricing is negotiable, and not based on any list, but follows a guiding principle of being "about a third of the going rate."

I bought some English oak, to make an Adirondack style garden chair. Air dried for about a year.

Not the prettiest, as it was near the end of what they had in inch boards, but now that I've got it home and started cutting it up, I can confirm that it's really nice to work and is going to finish very nicely indeed. £25 the lot, which I hope you will agree was very reasonable. (I'll be posting some w-i-p in the projects section.)

All proceeds go to help keep Westonbirt the amazing place it is, which is always well worth a visit for anyone who likes to spend an hour or more admiring the immense variety and beauty of trees.

Details at http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-75nfsk

 

[Bluekingfisher]

Looks like the sort of place one could quite happily rummage around in for a while, where abouts are they?

 

[MickCheese]

From the website.


Westonbirt, The National Arboretum is situated in Gloucestershire on the A433 approximately 3 miles south west of Tetbury. Look out for the brown signs.

Our address is Westonbirt 'The National Arboretum', Nr Tetbury, Glos, GL8 8QS

 

[Bluekingfisher]

Many thanks, I'll have a look at the website, it's a little far out of my normal range but I have a couple of friends not too far away from there so it may be a good excuse to pay them a visit and have a venture over to the yard at the same time.

Thanks again

 

[AndyT]

I think you'll find that most arboretums will have something like this - they all have the same need to actively maintain their collections and raise cash.

This randomly-googled list shows 38 similar places to try:

http://www.british-towns.net/attractions/attraction_list.asp?GetTLT=2&WithDisp=2&page=1

 

[Bluekingfisher]

Thanks Andy, not only have I learned what an Arboretum is, I have one a half mile from my front door.

Thanks again.

 

[OPJ]

Sounds like a very good price, Andy. Look forward to seeing it come to life in a future WIP!

I went to their show (Festival of the Tree) back in 2008 and all the wood they had for sale there (all native stuff, cut from their woods) was considerably more expensive than buying air-dried timber from somewhere like Interesting Timbers... It still very green as well. Strange. :?