Success at the 2009 Wood Awards

The Chairman of the judges, Giles Downes 

presents the hardware

Ruth Slavid, Giles Downes, William McMorran, Jeremy Cosmo Davies & Tim Lucas

William McMorran & Jeremy Cosmo Davies

Looking well chuffed with the award!

The good news is that the bridge won the category "The Best Use of British Timber" at the 2009 Wood Awards ceremony, held in the Carpenters Hall at the Worshipful Carpenters Company, in the City of London.  It is a fitting tribute to the client and all those individuals who shared their skills, patience and commitment to this inspiring project.  Thank each and every one of you!

The announcement can be seen on the Wood Awards website:

http:/www.woodawards.com/oak-bridge/

The 2009 Wood Awards e-publication can be found at:
http://www.itmps.co.uk/digitaleditions/bdwoodawards1009.html

Photo credits to www.gaborandbarbara.com

'Wood Awards, 2009'

John Wilkie, Peter Ross and Giles Downes

On the evening of 17th August, Giles Downes, Peter Ross and John Wilkie arrived to view the bridge and assess its merits under the 'Structural' and 'Special Award for Best use of British timber' competitions. It was a beautiful charismatic summer evening - warm low light and after-rain scents which followed us through the beautiful arboretum and shrub garden up to the bridge. The judges kindly asked me to stay and tell them about the bridge and I tried my best to field the varied and interesting questions. It was alltogether a good experience and I think that they genuinely enjoyed the visit.

As time moves on ...

A model of the bridge can be seen in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Picadilly, London amongst the architectural installations. The exhibition continues until 16th August 2009.

We are also pleased to announce that the bridge has been shortlisted for this year's Wood Awards. In the meantime here are some lovely photos taken by Edward Denison, copyright 2009. Enjoy!

The Piper and the Throng ...

Copyright Daisy Leyland, 2008


Copyright Daisy Leyland, 2008

On the 14th December 2008 we held a party in 'Celebration of a Bridge' when so many friends, believers, rogues, poachers and our kind clients congregated in the village hall. The champagne flowed, a short speech of welcome and thanks, followed by a wonderful walk up to the site to witness the clients being piped over the bridge by Rob Bell, much banter and cheer and then back to the hall for the hog roast. What a day and thank you to all who have participated, agonised, and supported this venture through its long history. You know who you are and I remain most grateful to you all.



I could never believe that I would be fortunate enough to work for a patron who could see the potential for a new and exciting bridge which would add something special to what is a most beautiful, classical garden. It has been an extraordinary experience from which we have all learnt a great deal. This would not have been possible without the challenges being set and often resolved by the consulting architect, William McMorran, who took it all in his large stride and deserves much of the credit. Thank you, thank you, thank you.










The photo above shows William McMorran of architects, McMorran & Gatehouse, Robert Myers of structural engineers, Price & Myers, and yours truly.

I would like to acknowledge the assistance and support of the following people who either worked on the bridge or helped make it happen: Hugo Saunders, Jonathan Wiltshire, Caroline Burn, Damian Fison, Alastair Fison, Tim Fison, John Barber, James Barber, Hugh Burn, Charlie Poulson, Stephen Mather and Stewart Graham, Roland and Hugo McMorran, Robin Le Mare, Andrew Joicey; the gardeners Neil, Nicholas, Kevin, Michael, Jimmy and Alan; those at Stuart Somerscales Ltd including Stuart, Alex, Dan, Andrew, David and Melvin: Brian Thompson, David Dobson; Peter Bennet and his team at DigitalSurvey; Tim Lucas and his team at Price & Myers; and of course William McMorran of McMorran & Gatehouse.

The Covers are Off

Jonny Wiltshire and I finished the bridge at the end of October in time for an impromptu celebration when the bubbly came out - and not for the last time!


















The Gardening team who helped so much to move this project along, thank you!

Clinker Cladding

The original design was to clad the bridge in a double skin - one on the inside and the other on the outside of the balustrade uprights. The choice of construction method was to follow that used on my steam-bent seats, clinker. The client was originally a little unsure of the double skin as it might make the bridge look too heavy and intrusive in the classic garden. I had already splayed out the uprights away from their previous vertical positions, either side of the centre. This gave the structure a much stronger sense of movement and growth - it looked and felt right. I wanted this characteristic to be more evident in the final design. I called on the immediate assistance of the client to agree with my lead on the matter and then we had to decide whether or not to have the clinker on the inside or the outside of the uprights. The inside it was to be!



I ordered up some hardboard and cut it into the same widths as the cladding boards. I was to use this as a template to show us where the cladding was likely to end. I wanted a dramatic sweep starting at 900mm and ending at 1400mm at the end of the bridge. This was to prove too difficult to achieve as we didn't quite have the length in the end uprights to achieve the effect. The weather was foul all summer so we were unable to take the tarpaulin down and have a good look at the sweep effect.

Completion of Decking

The decking proved to take longer than expected - a matter of getting my head around the compound angles required in order to make a snug fit for the decking when it butts up against the balustrade.



I started laying the decking from both ends so that I could be sure to bring the decking to a harmonious closure. The jig shown allowed me to estimate the necessary adjustments to the gap between the boards as we reached the end.