The UK has over eight million acres of woodland - around 13% of its total land area - yet it is also the world’s second-largest importer of timber. The reason is that for decades much of our woodland has been under-managed, and cannot produce enough wood of sufficient quality for making useful, high-quality products, including furniture. In fact, around 95% of the hardwood – from species such as oak, ash and beech - extracted from Britain’s forests is suitable only for burning, mainly as chips and pellets for biomass energy generation.

This is not a new problem. In 1662, the court official and diarist John Evelyn investigated the parlous state of England’s wooded estates for the Royal Society, of which he was founding member. His landmark report - Sylva, Or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesty's Dominions - now provides both the name and inspiration for a leading environmental charity, Sylva Foundation.

Established in 2009 by Sir Martin Wood and Dr Gabriel Hemery, Sylva Foundation is dedicated to reviving Britain’s wood culture, the stewardship of woodland and the use of forest produce for a sustainable future. Based at the Sylva Wood Centre in Oxfordshire, its pioneering work includes the Future Forest project, studying the resilience of native tree species in the face of climate change, and its myForest suite of digital tools to support sustainable forest creation and management.

Inside The Sylva Foundation Wood School

It also runs the Sylva Wood School, a unique specialist teaching centre dedicated to ‘inspiring excellence in craft, design and education using home-grown timber’. Through a program ranging from short courses right up to a full six-month professional training, the Sylva Wood School is educating the next generation of designers, makers, consumers and woodland owners in the value of home-grown timber. This, of course, is precisely in tune with our own philosophy at ercol, as reflected in our work with Grown in Britain (GiB) to produce classic ercol designs exclusively in British-grown ash.

Lugo Dining Armchair made from GiB Ash

Our mutual link through GiB has led to a thriving partnership. Sylva Wood School students come to our factory to understand the relationship between traditional craft and manufacturing, and see that the only real difference between their small-batch production and our operation is one of scale. In exchange, our apprentices visit the Sylva Wood Centre to learn more about forestry and domestic timber production, and gain a deeper knowledge of and respect for the material they’re working with.

Apprentice working in the ercol factory

In 2024, the Wood School provided free places on its prestigious six-week Summer School to eight early-career designers and makers identifying as female or non-binary as part of its wider Woodworking and Gender project. ercol chairman, Henry Tadros, provided their creative brief: to make a small, timeless craft item using GiB timber. The beautiful results included an exquisite coffret box made from ash, with a textured sliding lid in sycamore, sweet chestnut, oak and beech. We’re now working with the Sylva Wood School team to develop designs for future ercol products, all using home-grown timber from these other species, in addition to the ash we’re using currently.