Oxfordshire Woodland Group

Oxford Eco-Urbanism (OEU) is running two courses / activities in conjunction with the Oxfordshire Woodland Group (OWG) on Saturday Jan 17th and Saturday Feb 7th 2026.

OWG has a wood in South Oxfordshire, near Woodcote, where they have built a woodland cruck barn and are now planning to design and fit an "alternating stair" to the cruck barn and following this to design and build a timber drying shed (an open barn) out of timber felled, extracted and converted in the woodland. OWG / OEU are keen for aspiring architects, craftspersons, woodland managers and practitioners to get involved. The timber drying shed will be similar in size & proportion to the one built in 2025 by The Berkshire Bodgers near Hungerford, Berks.

The cruck barn and woodland sessions will be led by Ken Hume who is a timber building design and conservation expert and so this will be an excellent opportunity for all to learn how to design and build carefully and responsibly using locally sourced timber and at the same time learn all about the South Oxfordshire landscape from where the timber employed will be sourced.

The events:-

1. Jan 17th 2026 (10am-2pm):

Conduct a measured survey and develop an alternating stair design in the cruck barn. Some early discussion have already taken place with architectural students from Oxford Brookes University.

2. Feb 7th 2026 :

Part 1 (10am-12noon): introduction to the woodland & overview of plans to build a timber drying shed

Part 2 (noon - 2pm): outline the design brief for development of a technical drawings for the drying shed.

Attendees can take part in either or both parts of these sessions but if you're attending Part 2, and haven't been to OWG's woodland before, it's probably best to attend Part 1.

The cost to attend each event is likely to be no more than £15-20.

OEU can facilitate lift shares from Oxford or Reading by bus on the X40 route).

If you would like to attend please reply by email to Josh at oxecourb@gmail.com and he will put you on the list.