Herefordshire Woodturners Club gives young people first hands-on training day

Six young people were put straight to work at the lathe when Herefordshire Woodturners ran its first-ever junior training day at Headway House in Credenhill, with tutors Paul Hannaby, Keith Fenton and Peter Dixon leading the session on Saturday, May 30. The group included students aged up to 21, and the day was funded by the Association of Woodturners of Great Britain and the Worshipful Company of Turners Charitable Trust.

The training day was more than a one-off taster. Herefordshire Woodturners, founded in 2005, describes itself as a friendly club of around 60 members drawn from many ages and backgrounds, and it already runs structured training sessions for everyone from complete novices to more experienced turners. The club meets on the last Thursday of each month, except December, at Headway House, Trenchard Avenue, Credenhall HR4 7DX, putting the junior event firmly inside an existing teaching setup rather than outside it.

That matters because the national bodies backing the day are trying to build exactly this kind of pipeline. The AWGB’s Youth Training Programme is aimed at young people under 22 on January 1 of the membership year, and its workshops are held in a professional turner’s workshop, club or training centre. The organisation also aims for one trainer for every two students, a ratio that points to close supervision and hands-on time rather than a crowded demonstration.

The Turners’ Company says its education-and-training work includes youth training days, bursaries, grants for schools to buy lathes and tools, and support for schools caring for children with special needs. Its charitable trust says one of its principal aims is supporting the craft of turning and related educational training, which puts the Herefordshire session in line with a wider effort to keep the skill moving into the next generation.

For woodturning clubs, the practical lesson is clear. Herefordshire Woodturners did not treat youth recruitment as a side project; it built the day around real tools, named tutors and a small student group, then plugged it into a club that already teaches regularly. The AWGB’s own list of Young Turners Training Days, which includes 2023 events at Street Forge in Eye, Suffolk, and Road Farm in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, shows that Herefordshire’s junior session sits within an established national approach to bringing younger hands into the craft.