Dear Bill and all (UK) framers,

I was delighted to read Bill's account of a large gathering of UK framers at Westonbirt this August in Gloucestershire, England.

It has been difficult for me to contain my disappointment over the years at the apparent lack of progress made towards forming a UK Guild following our somewhat frosty meeting in 1994 at Stanford Dingley Village hall, deep in the English Berkshires.

This meeting was attended by such North American timber framing worthies as Ed Levin, Scott Murray and Nancy Wilkins who had flown thousands of miles to try and help us along the way. This did not meet with universal approval at the time and I am glad to discover that a new generation of framers has since emerged who are seeking the same but by now different grail.

I was the scribe who dilligently recorded the notes and then published them to all those who attended. I would have thought that they would all have been consigned to the dustbin by now and given their reference in Bill's article maybe this effort was not a total waste of time.

I am very pleased to learn that we have moved on.

I visited the Westonbirt framing project during the early summer and was encouraged to see the timber framing spirit shine from each of the participants in a manner similar to that which I had experienced at events in the USA. I made a return visit later in the year to see the completed frame accompanied by my long suffering wife Janet and son James. We all marvelled at what had been achieved by Gudrun Leitz / Henry Russell / Clare Walters / Anna Harrison Hall and all who took part. I took a series of photographs and James posted them in the picture gallery on our website at www.kfhume.freeserve.co.uk

I am disappointed that I did not make the Westonbirt framers meeting but I certainly take great heart from your news.

For my part I would welcome to meet and help those timber framers who aspire to work traditionally by scribe or square in the woodland - felling, hewing and converting the log where it falls. We are now blessed to own a Woodland in an area of outstanding natural beauty on the edge of the Chiltern hills in South Oxfordshire where at long last timber framing can be practiced in a fashion similar to that described by Jack Sobon and Richard Babcock and all the other framers whose names were not recorded in an obvious manner but whose work still endures centuries later.

Like Bill's wood shed, I too have been building my own 2 bay, North American style, square rule frame which I have cut mainly from boxed heart Douglas Fir and would now cetainly welcome some energetic assistance to complete the roof.

Please let me know if I can help any of you in any way.

My best regards to you all.

Ken Hume

Hampshire, England
ken.hume@pareuro.com