Unit 6, Dean Lane Works
Two railway arches in Bedminster: a brick floor, a wood stove, one long bench and a great deal of dust. A train goes over about every eleven minutes. Nobody notices them after the second week.
Kelpforge began in 2018 in half of one arch, making stair parts for a builder who paid on time and asked for nothing fancy. The furniture came later, largely because that builder's customers kept asking who had made the handrail.
Who is here
Ruth Enfield — makes the furniture and draws it. Trained at Rycotewood, then eight years with a firm in Somerset doing church and library work, which is where the habit of over-building things was acquired. Also answers the telephone, which is why it occasionally rings out while the planer is running.
Dan Coombes — three days a week, mostly machining, fitting and site work. Came out of boat repair on the Avon, and brought a boatbuilder's attitude to anything that must be scribed to a wall that is not straight.
Iris — a lurcher. Sleeps in the offcut bin. Friendly. Steals sandwiches, and shows no sign of remorse afterwards.
One apprentice has been through a two-year placement with the local college. Another will be taken on when the book allows it.
Thursday and Friday afternoons, 2–5pm, by arrangement. Ring first: the arch is often empty because the bench has gone out to a fitting.
The threshold is level and the doorway wide. The floor is old brick, uneven, and the arch is a working one; a clear route through it can be made ready for anyone who says beforehand.
Ten minutes' walk from Bedminster station, five from the Dean Lane bus stops. There is no customer parking in the yard; the street bays on Dean Lane are pay-and-display until 6pm.
What is in the shop
- Wadkin BAOS 12″ surface planer, 1961, rebuilt 2019
- Sedgwick MB thicknesser
- Startrite 352 bandsaw, 3″ resaw
- Panel saw with a sliding carriage, bought used, worth every penny
- Morticer, spindle moulder, and a very old pillar drill
- Extraction that has worked properly since 2022
- Dovetails, all carcase corners
- Drawbored mortice and tenon
- Wedged through-tenons
- Hand-fitted drawers on wooden runners
- Scribing and site fitting
- Final surfacing with a smoothing plane rather than a sander, wherever the grain allows
- Hard wax oil, three coats, cut back between
- Shellac, brushed and bodied up
- Wax over both
- Water-based eggshell, hand brushed
- No spray booth, deliberately — see Timber & Care
How the shop runs
One piece at a time on the main bench, and usually one other job at the machine end waiting for glue to go off. That is the capacity entire, which is why the book runs in months rather than weeks.
The week is five days, with a fortnight's shutdown in August and another at Christmas, when the arch is too cold for finish to cure properly in any case. Nothing is subcontracted except upholstery, glass and the odd piece of metalwork, all of it done within a mile of here by people who can be visited.
Offcuts go to the woodworking group at the community centre on East Street. Shavings go to a smallholding near Chew Stoke for bedding. What is left burns in the stove. Almost nothing leaves in a skip.
A short history, for those who want one
2018 — half an arch, a second-hand bandsaw and a contract for stair parts.
2020 — the whole of Unit 6. Six months of repairs and one enormous refectory table.
2022 — proper extraction, proper lighting, and Dan three days a week.
2025 — mostly dining tables and fitted cupboards, booked about six months ahead.
Come and watch something being made
More use than any photograph. There is nearly always a piece standing in the dry, and a finish can be felt with a hand before it is chosen.
Page updated 6 June 2024.