Peter Guyett made the first move toward establishing our organisation late in 1991 by offering to serve as the local contact in Hampshire (UK) for members of the then newly formed Woodworker Fellowship, which had been launched by the Woodworker magazine under the direction of Zachary Taylor (not the US President). In the absence of any volunteers to cover Berkshire and Surrey, Peter later agreed to include these counties as a temporary measure. Peter's aim in all this was to find other enthusiasts with whom he could exchange ideas directly, mainly in visits to one another's workshops.

To get started, a meeting was held in Peter's workshop in early 1992 of a few people who were serious woodworkers. The group discussed what might be achieved by banding together. This led to a questionnaire to all of the 32 members of the Woodworker Fellowship in the three counties. Fifteen replied, which helped to indicate the activities that would receive support. At that stage, the intention was to have a leader in each county who would arrange workshop meetings amongst local members, and an overall coordinator to organise combined visits to places of interest across the area and beyond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first event to be arranged was a visit to the then sawmill of Milland Fine Timber and the Company's showroom, The Working Tree, in June 1992. Then in October, the group went to the Weald and Downland Museum. Both visits attracted a dozen or so members and friends. It gradually became evident that the Woodworker Fellowship, run by the magazine, had gained limited support, with too few active members for the three counties to operate independently.

In 1993, Zachary Taylor offered to talk to the group about musical instruments. This was held the Mytchett Centre in March of that year, and the response (to what was a very entertaining presentation) was sufficiently encouraging to plan for further events at the same venue. Workshop visits continued and the next meeting at Mytchett was a talk by Jim Kingshott in November 1993.

By this time the Woodworker magazine had become disillusioned with the support it received for its Fellowship project, and over the following spring it progressively ran down, and then discontinued the activities.

In retrospect, the failure is not surprising; many of the members felt it did not provide value for money, though Peter believes the magazine was probably out of pocket. Moreover, it would have been hard to have found a more outgoing and enterprising leader than Zachary Taylor. What was required, however, which he recognised, was a vigorous local network of branches. These could have benefited from central support, serving, for example, to provide advice on the organisation of branches, offering a list of speakers and demonstrators, negotiating the terms of insurance, and arranging national events. But just two branches emerged; ours and the Kent Woodworkers, led initially by Roy Sutton.

At much the same time that the Woodworker was having second thoughts, several members had concluded that there was sufficient interest to set up a properly constituted organisation in the three counties, with elected officers and committee members, and a consistent basis of funding. A steering group was formed in October 1993, with the aim of producing the constitution and an outline programme. The inaugural general meeting was duly held at the Mytchett Centre on 15th March 1994. Twenty-six joined at that time, paying a subscription of £5.

The first event of new group was a visit in May to the Edward Barnsley Workshop attended by 31 members and friends. The next event was a member's workshop visit; Jack Cox gave a series of demonstrations of his equipment and techniques at his workshop in June. Next a party of 21 made the journey to Dorset in July for a talk by John Makepeace and a conducted tour of his workshop and Parnham House. The first annual general meeting was held in November, with Jim Kingshott overseeing a question and answer session following the formal business. And so it went on; membership reached 60 in 1997, and later reached a high of 65.

Peter Guyett remained as Chairman until December 2003 and was succeeded by David Allaway who had been Secretary.

 

By 2006 the members lived further afield than Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey; by that time the Fellowship also included members from Buckinghamshire, London and Sussex. It was decided therefore, at the annual general meeting, to change the name of the Fellowship to The Southern Fellowship of Woodworkers to recognise the broader area from which members were being drawn. The programme of events and meetings has continued in a similar format to that established in the 1990's. The Fellowship has been fortunate to both visit and invite speakers from the highest calibre of woodworkers in the United Kingdom.

Membership has decreased slightly to around 50 although the recent efforts to publicise the work of the Fellowship in the woodworking press and at exhibitions is beginning to see membership growing again.

Clive Clarke recently completed 10 years as Treasurer and Membership Secretary and was honoured with an award of t a fountain pen to recognise all the work he has devoted to the Fellowship. David Allaway retired as Chairman in 2006 and was succeeded by the current Chairman, Colin Waters, in 2008.