Rag Rug Course 4th September 2010

Eight of us had a very enjoyable day learning the basics of rag rug making with Jenny Barnes. Jenny is a Companion of the Guild of St. George who promotes the craft at home in York and beyond. The Ruskin Studio was full of Jenny's rugs, an array of coloured cloth and our work in progress. We had a lunch of home-made soup, bread and cheese on the lawn in the sunshine, then continued with our creations in the afternoon, all enthusiastically making plans to carry on our new skills at home and at informal gatherings in future.

Rob's picture of the Studio

This is Rob's finished product which will be used as a post card and for invitations to special events at the Studio - thanks Rob

Rob Taylor paints the new Ruskin Studio

Rob has been our architect for the Ruskin Studio and he is also a very good artist. Here he is creating his drawing of the studio during its construction

Work starts on the Burlton's Field Barn

Our builder Ron Clowes has now started work on restoring this small field barn on the outskirts of Bewdley.

The work is being made possible through an 80% grant from Natural England through the Uncllys Farm Higher Level Stewardship scheme.

The work will include stripping and relaying the roof tiles on new cleft laths, stabilising the walls and pulling the building back into shape.

It will continue to be used as a field barn for the storage of hay.

Our first training course in the Ruskin Studio

Here's Nick Dunn from Frank Matthews nursery in Tenbury explaining to local orchard owners how to plan a new orchard and sharing his life's experiences of managing the production of fruit trees.

James fitting the solar panels

Here you can see the evacuated tubes of the solar hot water panels being fitted by James after he had completed all the plumbing.

They feed hot water into a large (750 litre) thermal accumulator. Additional sources of heat are the Esse woodburning stove and an electric immersion heater.

The heat from the accumulator is used for the underfloor heating system as well as for hot water for wahing.

Kev and Norris laying the floor

- here you can see the floor scree being laid over the underfloor heating pipes. The scree is 70mm thick and will be gently heated by the pipes beneath. They will be drawing hot water from a large (705litre) thermal store which will be heated by the Esse Ironheart stove and by the solar hot water panels on the roof.

As you can see it's a skilled job getting the floor perfectly level and smooth.