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 100. At the start of each financial year we usually lose about 10% of our membership, which usually gives us enough slack to clear the waiting list which accumulates during the summer show season.
At Christmas 2011 we can boast a membership of 100 with a waiting list of five, and we are now averaging an attendance of about 55 per weekly meeting and about 60+ for the monthly 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 ten lathes, and full camcorder and DVD 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 or "in house" 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 often have a small "in house" instruction class in the small room on the second Wednesday.

For the last three or four years we have had a monthly competition on the fourth Wednesday, with the competition theme being announced a few weeks in advance. However, in 2012 we are changing that to two open competitions, the first one to coincide with the AGM on the first Wednesday in April and the second one about September/October.

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

We have up to ten 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 55 members per night.

Seven 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).

For many years the annual subscription has been £25 per annum, but due to ever increasing costs - mainly an increase of over 500% in room rental since our move to new premises - we are reluctanly increasing this to £30 per annum starting on 1st April 2012, 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 Cleveland Show... ...and our new Gazebo at Guisborough Priory.



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



John Basford having a bad hair day.

Home Page
Diary Of Events
Competitions
Where To Find Us
Members' Work Gallery
Contact Us
Useful Links