About Us

Teesside Woodturners’ Association was established in 1998 at Darlington, and moved to Middlesbrough in 2000.

For nine years we were firmly established at Newham Grange Leisure Farm in Coulby Newham, on the southern outskirts of Middlesbrough.
However, in the summer of 2009, due to extensive renovation at the farm, they could no longer accommodate us and we were obliged to move.
Middlesbrough Council (who owned the farm) bent over backwards to find us alternative accommodation and after six months at a temporary venue the Council offered us the use of Hemlington Hall Farm - a large converted farm building in a superb location right alongside Hemlington Lake and only about one mile from our old premises.
We are indebted to the Council - they were not obliged to find us alternative premises - but our new venue is hugely superior to our old premises and ideally suited to our needs. Here's hoping that this move will see us settled for many years to come.

Having assessed the available space and facilities in our new premises we decided that we could afford to increase our membership ceiling to 95 and we were able to clear our waiting list by April 2010 and still have room for a few more members.
At the start of our new financial year (1st April 2010) we can now boast a membership of 87 and we are now averaging an attendance of about 50 per weekly meeting and about 60+ for the monthly guest demonstrations.

With the help of two substantial grants from Awards For All, we were able to purchase a great deal of equipment; we now have eight lathes, and full camcorder and video recording and projector viewing equipment for demonstrations.

Having started with one night per month, we went on to twice per month; this was so successful that we are now open every Wednesday evening throughout the year ( though we reluctantly close during the Christmas/New Year week ).

We try to keep the third Wednesday of each month - our original meeting night – as our “main event” night, when we have a guest demonstrator or a special theme night. On these evenings, we have recently had up to 65 members present.

All other Wednesdays are basically “do it yourself” nights, when anything goes, although we usually have an "in house" demonstration on the second Wednesday and we have a monthly competition on the fourth Wednesday, with the competition theme announced a few weeks in advance.

Views of our new club room on a normal "hands on " evening.

We have up to eight lathes running all evening, with plenty of experienced turners available to assist beginners, our own “quartermaster” selling abrasives, finishes, pen kits etc., a wood store with a considerable amount of timber for sale, and a large turning video library for hire. On these “ordinary” nights, we are averaging about 50 members per night.

Five of our lathes are minis ( Fox and Axminster ), some of which we take out to demonstrations at the local summer shows. These demos have proved very popular, and we are getting so many invitations that we occasionally have to turn one down.

We have a permanent showcase of members' work in our main workroom. This encourages new starters, and shows them what can be achieved, and members are proud to have their work on display.(see home page).

The annual subscription is £25 per annum, starting on 1st April, or a pro rata payment for anyone joining during the year, with a weekly payment of £1 per attendance, which covers tea, coffee etc.

TWA Stand at Seamer Show... ...and at Cleveland Show.



Stan Lax doing it the hard way..... ....and Gerry Eyre chooses the easy option.



John Basford having a bad hair day.

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Where To Find Us
Members' Work Gallery
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