Hello, I'm Steve, owner and founder of The Natural Wood Company UK Ltd.
The Natural Wood Company is a small British woodworking business based near Christchurch in Cambridgeshire, where I design and make distinctive products from English Oak and other carefully selected hardwoods. The story, however, started in Kent more than 20 years ago.
From a small workshop in Kent
In 2006, I moved with my family to High Halden, a village in Kent, to restore and modernise a traditional 14th-century Kentish cottage.
I converted a derelict brick outbuilding into a makeshift workshop for the restoration project. Over time, that little workshop became permanent and eventually grew into the workshops of The Natural Wood Company.
What feels like a lifetime ago now, I had studied Art and Design Technology in Southampton, specialising in product design. I've always had a fascination with how things work, engineering, woodturning and carpentry, so designing and making products from wood came naturally.
How The Natural Wood Company began
Before The Natural Wood Company officially began, I was looking for unusual birthday and Christmas presents for friends and family.
One of the first products I designed was our Applecore Bird Feeder. Friends loved them, other people started asking for them, and before long I was selling them online and sending them to customers around the world.
Then out of nowhere, came the product that really helped shape the business, a friend asked me: Could you design and make me a wooden Christmas tree?
She went on to explain that she was allergic to real Christmas trees and didn't want a plastic artificial tree.
I designed the tree and made her a Christmas tree from solid Oak, at about 3ft tall, however, it took more than several attempts to get the design just right.
Then when she sent me photographs of her family gathered around the tree that Christmas, I realised the idea could become something more.
So I redesigned the original so it could be made in different sizes, dismantled for storage and used year after year. That design became our Alternative Oak Christmas Tree, which we still make today, you can even have the individual branches engraved with family names to turn it into a real family tree.
The perfect example is our Slot Doorstop, made from solid English Oak and individually sized to fit French, patio and bifold doors.
Each one is made to the customer's door measurements, providing a simple way of holding large doors open without drilling into the door, wall or floor.
Alongside these original designs, I make a range of solid-wood products for the home and kitchen, including personalised pieces and products made to customers' individual requirements.
Handmade in Cambridgeshire
Today, The Natural Wood Company is based in Cambridgeshire, England, where our products continue to be designed, made, finished, and packed by hand.
Wherever possible I use native, sustainably sourced timber, particularly English Oak. For certain products I also use carefully selected European Oak and other hardwoods where their particular characteristics make them better suited to the job.
Packaging is kept simple, with recyclable paper and cardboard used wherever practical.
After nearly two decades, the principles behind The Natural Wood Company haven't really changed: thoughtful design, good materials and products made properly.
I hope you enjoy looking around the website. If you have a question about one of our products, need help with measurements, or have something a little unusual in mind, you're very welcome to contact me.
Steve Pudney
Founder, The Natural Wood Company UK Ltd
Cambridgeshire, England