Tim Wood Beyond Parnham – Extract/contribution to the book – Beyond Parnham, Parnham House – Where Tim Wood was trained from 1981 to 1983

This is the story of an educational phenomenon that inspired a generation of young designers and furniture makers. Now, forty plus years on from the launch of courses at Parnham College, Parnham House in 1977, they reflect on their careers…

Tim Wood

I arrived at Parnham House aged eighteen in 1981. The first year started with tuition from Robert Ingham, who was a brilliant, thorough, exacting and extremely patient tutor.

In the second year, my Design Tutor was the highly renowned Alan Peters, OBE.

To give just some idea of Parnham’s influence and reputation I thought it might be of interest to include a list of the visiting lecturers who came to Parnham House while I was there:
Alan Tilbury, a project to design and make a display cabinet in limed oak, suede, leather and glass; Frederick Scott, under whose tutelage
I designed and made an upright hall chair in limed oak and grey leather; Ashley Cartwright, for whom I designed and made an ash and olive ash low table, now owned by Sir Kenneth Grange, and a table commissioned by Jacquetta Hawkes for her husband J.B. Priestley; Norman Potter (interior design project); Lisa White (furniture history); John Stoddard (design); Victor Chinnery (visits to historical collections); Andrew Watson
(photography); Robin Rae (weekly drawing lessons); Michael Wolff (presentation); Wendell Castle (lamination/carving and other furniture techniques); Ralph Selby (brief-writing); David Colwell (designed and made the pencil stool with a back); Patrick Reyntiens (drawing and history); Professor James Woudhuysen (design philosophy); Graham Williams (architecture and structural engineering); John Cederquist (USA, leather and wood project); Richard Martin (marketing and series production); Vivian Stokes (business studies); Cecil Jordan (woodturning).

And as if that wasn’t sufficient we also had various seminars, including those with Sir Terence Conran, Stephen Bayley, Lord Foster, Lord Rogers, Professor Theo Crosby, Neville Neal, Richard Raffan, Frank Nelson, Howard Raybould, Joram Mariga, Kevin Perkins, Dr Dick Reid, OBE, Delia Smith,CH CBE, Michael Cooper, Edward Lucie-Smith, Professor Sir Edmund Happold, Professor J.E. Gordon, Ken Thomas, Ron Arad, Walter Collins, etc.

I set up Tim Wood Furniture in 1988, winning the Master’s Award for Young Enterprise from The Furniture Makers’ Company five years later. I am a member of the Livery Company and have served on a number of The Worshipful Company of Furniture Maker’s committees.

Tim Wood Furniture has exhibited widely, and we have twice been invited to design the show house kitchen at the Daily Telegraph/House and Garden Show.

We work all over the world, specialising in fine bespoke luxury kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms and free-standing furniture.
Every commission is a one-off, from the first drawing to the final fitting. The emphasis is on a close collaboration with clients, advising on appropriate materials and ensuring an attention to detail goes beyond the merely aesthetic. Our clients include David Hicks Plc, Dodington Park Estate, Observatory Gardens, The Bromptons, Kirtling Tower, Northacre Properties, Fettercairn House, Tillypronie House, Knight Frank, Barton Manor, The Natural History Museum, Aldworth House and Glaxo Smith Kline.

Page 157 (Tim Wood’s contribution to the book – Beyond Parnham, a celebration book of 40 years after the founding of The John Makepeace School for Craftsmen in Wood/Parnham College, Parnham House, Beaminster, Dorset – where Tim Wood was trained 1981 to 1983)

Tim Wood Beyond Parnham is a forty year celebration of where Tim Wood was trained
Tim Wood Beyond Parnham is a forty year celebration of where Tim Wood was trained as a fine furniture designer-maker from 1981 to 1983.