Lewis Goldwater

Turnham Green Wood was established in 2011 by Herefordshire-based green woodworker, Lewis Goldwater.

I am fascinated by green-woodworking and the potential of coppiced woodland for manufacturing beautiful truly sustainable products in wood. A few years ago I learnt of a style of basket, called a "Whisket" once made in abundance on farms through Mid Wales but was at risk of disappearing forever because nobody was making them anymore.

The Welsh whisket is a traditional, round-bottomed basket, made from split hazel. Other similar styles of hazel basket were made across different areas of Wales, and some parts of southern and eastern Europe. Little is known though as to whether hazel as a weaving material, was ever used in this way, in other parts of the British Isles. The name "Whisket" was historically, a more widely used word for a round-bottomed basket, often used with farming but also with the lead mines of Derbyshire. The split oak baskets made in the Wyre Forest were known as whiskets. The Whisket is only known in living memory through mid-Wales.  

I am one of only a handful of people in the UK still making and teaching split hazel basketry, making it a critically endangered Heritage Craft.

• Basketry
• Splint Wood / Oak
• Traditional