The other day I showed a lovely magazine editor around Border Oak - he was especially interested in our workshops and our carpenters who craft each frame by hand, using many of the same techniques as medieval carpenters. I had arranged for a photographer to spend the day with us too and he took over 700 shots during the day - some of them are atmospheric details which really capture essence of what we do. I thought I would post a few here..........
This is the front of our office, built about 20 years ago. We have just had the little garden bits re landscaped and I am pleased to report that the beautiful climbing roses have survived their first ever prune - and a dramatic prune it was. The roses were planted by a man called Yogi who sadly died a few years after planting them. He is very much missed by the original crew of Border Oak so the rose plants are sentimentally significant - we built a house and garden centre for David Austin, the king of roses, a few years ago and I like to think that the 'roses around the door' approach helped a little bit. 
Anyway this is one of the carpenters interpreting the 3D technical drawings produced by our designers - the drawings provide a strong visual but the carpenters still need to translate this onto beams
initially the beams are marked up in felt tip 
and those markings are cut and shaped by hand
We don't have a mass production line, everything is done by hand. there are two or three basic cutting machines though they date from the 1950's!More to come
Loving this look into the making of the houses and some of the history of the company. More please.....
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