Phill was absent from last year’s fair, because he was on a six-week study tour of the US where he was looking at materials and production methods used by wheelwrights.
His 6,000-mile journey began in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia and ended 16 states later at the North West Carriage Museum, Washington State. He saw wagons from the early settlers in the 1700s, part of a wheel from one of General Custer's wagons and visited the childhood home of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of Little House on the Prairie.
‘My trip was funded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and the Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights, so that I could look at the history and techniques of how people have developed the wooden wheel in the US. I also wanted to investigate potential alternative timbers to those I use here in the UK. Many of our trees are threatened by diseases and I want to make sure the work of the wheelwright will continue.
‘The trip was totally inspirational for my work as a wheelwright, and it's made me even keener to work to promote what we have in the UK, all our history and heritage, and to pass on all that I learned to others.’
The fair is an annual celebration of timber, trees and woodcrafts … an action-packed day with lumberjacks, chainsaw carvers, and horseloggers. Visitors can have a go at eco-art, cheer on the log to leg race, and hitch a ride on a tree lift.
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