The Strawdio

This was one of the first things I did with other people during the pandemic!

In early 2020 I coppiced the hazel tree in our garden to use for stubs and pins.

The tree has grown back very nicely since. It might be ready for another harvest before the walls are up!

This big tree in the front garden was too close to the house and needed to come down anyway. I was going to fell it and use it for firewood but then I realised it would be perfect for the roof timbers.

Once they were down I moved all the brush away. We are still using it for kindling even now in 2023.

I was very careful not to let the timbers fall on the the house next door. So careful that I didn’t notice the telephone wire running right where the tree fell. The neighbours were without internet for the rest of the day. Sorry Dan and Carolone!

Moving the timbers from the front garden to be near the studio was incredibly hard. It took a group of about 6 people dragging them across the lawn. I don’t have photos of that.

Here are some models and drawings I did of the roof.

These timbers are 7 meters long, which meant I didn’t have to join them. On reflection it would have been easier to just use shorter lengths and join them!

The base plate is the base on which the whole rest of the structure is built, so it needs to be solid. This ended up sitting in the rain for a couple of years during covid but it’s made of durable timber so it should last ok.

I was very grateful for all the help with this part of the project.

I got most of my timber from this wood in Herefordshire:

The longest pieces were 7 metres long, so I had to hire a 7 tonne lorry to transport it and this guy called Steve drove it for me.

I also bought a couple of solid oak doors around this time.

This was a sad day. I wish that I didn’t have to take down this beautiful specimin, but there was no way to avoid it.

The trunk will be used as one of the main roof timbers.

In some ways it would have been a good idea to leave this tree here for longer, so that I could use it to attach winches to for later lifting operations.

Thorns in my gloves and all around my ankles.