Carving a new future at The Orchard
Malaysian bike rides and medieval angels led wood carver Will Barsley to his perfect job in a perfect location.
Will’s The Orchard Carving Studio in the old toy shop at the Cider Press centre is decorated with hops – from his home county of Kent – and on Saturday (Valentine’s Day) visitors will be able to have a go at carving a hops and apples door frame to complete the exterior. That’s the day the revamped centre is officially opened, with Luna’s bakery, GoDeer textile workshop, Design cafe and other tenants joining in.
So what led Will to take up chisels instead of computers? “Eight years ago I was working with the United Nations on food and agriculture and climate change policy. Then me and my girlfriend Lisa [now his wife] got the chance to travel.” Not a normal package tour but a bicycle ride around South East Asia and India. While Lisa worked remotely in the hotel room – for the NGO Textile Exchange – Will visited local wood carvers. “Every country has wood carvers and I was on a mission really to meet them. I wrote articles, which helped fund the trip, and made a website called Carving Countries.
It was really hard conditions
There was a thing called Backstreet Academy where for a few pounds you could spend the day with a carver and try it out. “They kept asking me to tell them about English wood carving and I didn’t really know! So when we were in Malaysia I just Googled how do you learn carving in the UK – and saw this course in London.”
An Education
Will spent three years on this City and Guilds London School of Art course, earning a diploma in historic carving and gilding. The five carvers in his year worked alongside seven stone carvers to
learn every aspect of the trade. “So that turned carving from a hobby into a career. It’s a highly regarded course and it led me straight to the job at Westminster Hall.”
The Westminster Hall, built in 1097 by William II, is the oldest building on the UK Parliamentary estate and a historic centerpiece of the Palace of Westminster in London. Measuring 239 by 67 feet, it was once the largest hall in Europe, featuring a famous hammer-beam roof installed in the 1390s. It has hosted major trials (Charles I, Guy Fawkes), royal banquets, and lying-in-state ceremonies.
But that famous hammer beam roof was suffering with death watch beetle and Will spent 18 months working on re-carving the almost fallen angels.
He got the job – which meant working at night, in full safety gear on scaffolding, which he says was freezing in winter and sweltering in summer – via a carpenter who had been on part of the course with him. “He was working on the roof and it turned out they needed a lot of carving repairs but they didn’t have any carvers, so it was just by chance that I got the job. The scaffold was a work of art ‘cos it couldn’t hang off the roof so it had to come on these big stands, thread through, there was three heights and the middle one was electric so you raised the scaffold and sometimes they’d put it in the wrong place…”
“You have to go up these tiny ladders and you’ve got this wobbly little bench. It was really hard conditions. And because they had set off all these chemicals to try and kill the beetle, years ago, we had to wear hazmat suits and big masks. But it was a great team.”
It was a leap of faith
Replicas of the angels, made by Will, are in Parliament’s gift shop, should you need one. He also makes coats of arms working with the College of Arms. Recently Will was involved with Exeter Cathedral’s modern misericord project. A misericord is a tip up seat in the choir stall and Exeter have some dating from 1250. “They have often very playful and very naughty carvings, because
it wasn’t allowed to be religious because it’s under your bum, and they are used for perching. Rather than me just make them, we did a design competition for people in Devon to design modern ones. We got loads of designs and chose four winners – three of them were kids, one was only six years old – then they came on a clay modelling workshop to turn the design into 3D, then I carved it and they helped carve in the cathedral. Now they are in their new Treasures gallery and people can come and sit on them.”
Setting out The Orchard
When Will and Lisa settled in Dartington he decided he wanted to do more teaching. By chance he walked past the building, then empty, as much of the Cider Press centre was, and took the gamble on a lease. “It was a leap of faith but I always knew that the diversity would work – I still have my commissions, the courses are going well and the shop is a bonus. I’ve found it’s quite unique to see carving happening.”
His courses give chiselling novices the chance to get creative. “We have five guest tutors involved now – a spoon carver, a puppet carver, lino and someone doing medieval illuminations and also I work with Maria Moorhouse the stone carver who has been on the estate for years.” Will’s family owns a department store in Paddock Wood so it must be in his blood that he wants to draw lots of artisans together to work with each other.
He also thinks that with the growing dominance of AI, heritage crafts such as his will actually be more secure. As the huge popularity of craft shows on TV demonstrates, there is a yearning for the hand made and unique.
Will is in the happy position of doing a job he loves.
“I infuriate Lisa sometimes because I love it so much it can take over your life. If I won the Lottery I would still be here.”
orchardcarvingstudio.com