Welcome to the web site of

Maurice Pyle (Woodsmith)

We have developed a range of services in the time we have been in business, but still today, almost everything we do involves recently felled or 'green' wood in the round

Living with trees, working with wood

Based in the north-east of England, our work includes practical woodland management (although less in recent years) contracting for organizations such as The Woodland Trust, to the production of firewood, barbeque charcoal and traditional hand made wooden products. Our products are made from timber we harvest ourselves or bought in from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) approved sources, currently about 70% of our supplies comes from The National Trust.

• We offer instruction in traditional woodland craft subjects at our 12th century former watermill workshop in the beautiful wooded Beamish valley, within the grounds of Beamish Museum, Co Durham.  Our woodcraft course programme, largely led by Maurice Pyle but also by other craft specialists, is now well established throughout the country

• Demonstrations are offered in a range of woodland crafts, such as pole lathe turning, besom broom making, cleft ash gates, wooden bowls, and charcoal burning

• Maurice co-ordinates and teaches on the NCFE Certificate in Wood Craft course at Houghall College, Durham. The next course will start Jan 2010

• Although we have been selling carefully selected tools and books to our students for several years, in 2006 we launched the 'The Woodsmith's Store'. This means we now stock a much larger range of tools and books for green woodworkers, including a wide range of axes and other tools from Gransfors Bruks and turning and carving tools from Ashley Iles and Ray Iles.  We recently asked Ashley Isles to make us a Twybil based on an much respected example I owned, we now have these for sale; see Tools/Books/Devices

• We have two small traditional pole marquees ( 24' x 12' and 24' x 12' ) that we use occasionally for our own workshops and demonstrations, but also hire these out, ask for details. See News for photos and hire prices

This site will give you the latest info on our services and products with our diary and news section providing you with more of the up-to-date happenings in our work schedule. If you require any more information please call Maurice on 0191 2524 064 or e-mail maurice@mpwoodsmith.co.uk

Being a small friendly business we aim to be flexible in our working practices and able to adapt and react quickly to our customers requirements.