Paul Swainston
Swainston Training NPTC City & Guilds CentreDelivers and assesses a wide Range of NPTC Certificates of Competence in L2 &3 Forestry L2 Land Based Machinery and L2 Pests & Pesticides. From 2011-2019 worked with Children in Care with Learning & Behavioural Difficulties. Delivering City & Guilds Qualifications through practical Land Based Skills. Previously I worked as a Lecturer at both Holme Lacey and Hartpury Colleges.
Charlie Ballinger
Forestry WorkerMy name is Charlie and I am a forestry worker. I spend my Winters on the chainsaw, working as part of a team of horse loggers. In the summers I like to build and craft with wood, utilising our saw Mill.
I began my woodland career at the Cherrywood Project. I learnt small scale low impact woodland management and living. This covered coppicing, charcoal burning, milling, greenwood working, small scale building, teaching and much much more. I love working in the woods. It’s hard graft but rewarding on so many levels.
Maurice Clother
Touch WoodMaurice Clother has a Bangor degree in forestry, with a special interest in traditional woodland crafts. Since 2001 he has been teaching woodland crafts to many groups with therapeutic aims. He has developed a wide range of woodcraft skills since learning hurdle making from Ken Gaulton in Hampshire as a youth; then whilst studying and working in forestry he learned from the “Anglesey Chair Bodgers”, Mike Abbott and many others. He has learned from his own experience and observation of others that these simple, yet skilled craft activities can be very therapeutic.
Alastair McGowan
Dry Stone WallingAlastair is a stonemason, self-employment advocate, thinker and mentor. He spent his first ten working years as a soldier, gaining special forces experience. He then became a general/commercial stonemason with Tudor Rose Masons at Portland while also pursuing an academic interest in how and why people perform tasks and work. He has an MSc in work psychology and PhD in human performance in critical complex tasks, both from Cardiff University.
He teaches basic stonemasonry to beginners, its engineering and aesthetic and ecological qualities, with some tips about how to succeed in trading practical skills for a living. Being a craftsman is something that he believes comes from deep within the individual. It requires uncommon qualities but they can be nurtured in anyone for significant individual benefits and personal and social fulfilment.
Andy Karren
Gwent Wildlife TrustAndy is Senior Conservation Ecologist at Gwent Wildlife Trust undertaking a wide range of ecological surveys, providing habitat management advice and leading guided walks.
Kate Mobbs-Morgan
Rowan Working HorsesRowan Working Horses was established in 2007 and is owned and run by Kate Mobbs-Morgan. Kate is based in Monmouthshire and with her 3 Ardennes primarily undertakes woodland management using the horses as a low impact extraction method. However, she also uses the horses for other land management work, teaching, training and demonstrations.
Mark Hancock
Machine ToolsA member of the Register of Professional Turners (RPT), Mark Hancock has been woodturning professionally for 30 years. During that time, he has progressed from selling at craft shows to being commissioned by the Foreign Office for work for visiting foreign dignitaries, creating a recognised style of work, participating in exhibitions at prominent galleries in the UK and abroad and demonstrating worldwide. As a result, he has important pieces included in private collections all over the world. In 2009 Mark was approached by Warwickshire College to help establish and teach part time woodturning courses. That has led on to his teaching full time with a recognised teaching qualification (PTLLS) and 10 years of teaching practice.
Michelle Mateo
CraftsMichelle has a degree in Environmental Management and is an experienced woodland worker who specialises in pole lathe bowl turning, ash splint basketry and leather work. Her work aims to be low impact and part of a sustainable woodland management plan. She is passionate to keep woodland heritage crafts thriving.
Lauren Youngs
ArtistAttending Wimbledon Collage of Art, and obtaining my BA in Fine Art Painting, really opened my heart and eyes to the joy of creating.
My previous work includes facilitating eco art sessions, and horticulture, within pupil referral units and other specialist schools in North London. Art and art therapy has been a large part of my practice since working alongside charities, such as Pinpoint UK and St Mungo’s, where I witnessed the therapeutic effects of working with the land and creating. My work has since bought me to Wales, where I am currently living as a practising artist and farm hand. As a multi disciplinary artist, I incorporate nature and all that she provides into my work and sessions. To connect with the land, and to paint, are my two biggest joys in life. To have the opportunity to share these passions with others is a privilege.
