Our Stourhead Story

Back in 2012, we had a visit from a friend who spotted our handmade pot stands.  "These are lovely!" came her response, followed by, "My friend, who works at the National Trust has got to see these!"

Well, to cut a long story short, samples of our coasters, pot stands and wooden bowls went to a buyers meeting at the National Trust, where it was decided that our lovely wares would go on sale at Stourhead, in Wiltshire.

On the morning of our first meeting at Stourhead, a flash of inspiration about a new design overwhelmed me.  I quickly sketched out an Oak Tree design in the four seasons and took this to the Head Buyer at Stourhead.  To my delight, she loved the design and placed an order there and then.

Since then, we have supplied the National Trust with coasters, pot stands and beautiful wooden bowls.  We love being creative and seeing our Handmade in Blighty range in the shop at Stourhead gives us an amazing sense of achievement.  We are very proud of every product that we make and so pleased to be sharing them with like-minded people who can appreciate them too.

Any excuse to get in the woods

We have been making homemade wine and liquors for our own consumption for several years.  It is such a pleasurable pastime foraging through our hedgerows for ingredients.

So far we have made several varieties of wine over the years, one of the best was elderberry, however the dandelion wine was an experiment that didn't go quite so well... it had a strange industrial cleaner smell so ended up quite literally down the drain.

One of our favourite excuses to get in the woods is to go out and collect birch sap for a fine home wine.  When the sap is running then Spring is nearly here (which is always a good feeling).  We make a small hole in the southern side of the tree.  We then insert the tube and ensure the container is ready to take the sap from the tree.  We use cotton wool in the top of the container to stop any wine flies getting in.  We only ever take the smallest amount of sap so that the tree is never harmed.  It also means we can return to the same tree in a few years time for more of the same.

This picture shows the process along with some unexpected ice.

We leave the tube in the tree for two days before removing it.  Then we ensure we plug the hole in the tree (using a stripped hazel stick) so that there is no damage to the tree. 

When the fermentation process has completed, our wine will be bottled and ready to drink at the end of the summer.  Cheers!

From Blighty to beyond

Well, here we are, Handmade in Blighty.  An idea that has grown from a kernel to a reality in a short space of time. 

We are a husband and wife team who both love creating lovely things from natural objects most of which are sourced in our beautiful county of  Somerset, England.

We have been making crafts and wooden items as a hobby for a few years now.  Lots of lovely gifts for our friends weddings, christenings, birthdays, retirement and so on until December 2012, when Gregster said "In 2013 we get a website".

Six tiny words with a potentially life changing impact.

We shall see...