Founder, Anselm Fraser
Anselm Fraser combines the demanding job of school principal with running his own award winning furniture design and restoration business.
He trained as furniture designer and restoration expert with the renowned Michael Hay-Will and is today highly regarded as one of the UK’s leading exponents of the art of furniture making and design.
His signature blue and copper style has many fans and he has restored some very fine pieces of furniture, including the poet William Wordsworth’s bureau.
He is an inspirational teacher who marries the 18th century values of Thomas Chippendale with 21st century techniques.
His daily lectures, which range from tips on how to market a
woodworking business to the complexities of modernist furniture design, are one of the highlights of the school day.
And he is always on hand to give individual advice and support to
students, even long after they have graduated.
His approach to teaching is very simple – he believes that it is only by living and working with wood in a busy workshop that a student can excel in this most demanding of disciplines.