Perhaps the lamentations over the vandalistic felling of the much filmed, much photographed and much loved 300-year old sycamore on Hadrian’s Wall will provoke a creative out-pouring of ideas about what to do with the timber.
One picture of the damaged stump was particularly striking: the middle was clean, free of stain and apparently healthy. This is special since sycamore timber is notorious for unsightly green stain and severe checks or cracks. One use for which the wood is entirely unsuited is as an exterior bench, as has been reported in the press - a notion aired by a ‘spokesman for the National Trust’. Sycamore is entirely unsuited for exterior use. It rots easily when exposed to the elements or when in contact with the ground. But it does make good kitchen utensils (chopping boards, salad bowls and worktops), mostly since the timber has almost no impact on taste. Oak, by contrast, is used for wine barrels precisely because its smokey taste, from the high tannin content, leaches into the wine. Occasionally, sycamore boards can show ‘fiddle-back’ grain, a pleasing tiger-stripe or ripple effect going across the normal growth rings, much prized by musical instrument makers – hence the nickname.
Ten years later, I was commissioned to design the furniture for the ambassador’s office (desk, meeting table, bookshelves etc) and the architect, Richard Burton, of Ahrends Burton and Koralek, encouraged me to use something unusual. I told him about the yew which had by then been seasoning for a decade.
The project is featured in Thames & Hudson's "Furniture in Architecture" and there is even a small booklet published by the FCO about the art and artefacts commissioned for the embassy, which describes the coincidence.
We selected key sections of the tree that might be suitable, endeavouring to exploit the grain of the timber, the hypnotic scent of cedarwood and represent something in the design that was unique to Witney. Echoing details from the columns and font in the church, the design evolved into a turned classical ‘column’ supporting a ‘mensa’ (table-top), carved with five crosses to represent the wounds of Christ on the cross.
The altar was dedicated by the Bishop of Dorchester at a special service on Sunday 10 September 2023, the 780th anniversary of the foundation of the church.