The Quiet Workshop is dedicated to teaching hand tool skills for traditional furniture making. It’s a quiet and relaxing place without the noise of big woodworking machines.

StJohn has been teaching for 25 years and building things from wood a lot longer. He started building small boats with his dad in their back garden when he was 12 and since then has explored a huge range of different projects. For the last 18 years or so he’s dedicated himself to chairmaking using traditional and contemporary techniques and designs. He favours woven chairs because they’re lightweight, elegant and comfortable.

After years as a passionate amateur baker Bryony trained at Le Cordon Bleu as a patisserie chef in 2022. While she enjoys the intricate challenges of French patisserie her heart really belongs to a big indulgent cake. Every meal at The Quiet Workshop is prepared by her from scratch and you can be assured of a home-baked treat at coffee time and mid-afternoon.

StJohn and Bryony started running stool-making and woodworking classes in 2018 on a rather ad hoc basis. StJohn was asked to run small ‘masterclasses’ in a school he worked in and then ran classes in other people’s workshops. They moved to dedicated workshops of their own in 2023 and now run more than 30 classes each year.

They teach seat-weaving to upholsterers at venues including St. Alban’s Upholstery School and The Festival of Upholstery and run woodwork workshops for Rowan Community Evening Classes in Cambridge and The National Trust Heritage Skills Centre in Wiltshire.

They take commissions for chairs, benches and stools and for restoration and reseating.