One of the past traditional treasures of Timbmet was the "homegrown" yard on Cumnor Hill. There one could stroll along dirt tracks, through lines of neatly laid out boulles - mostly oak but other species too - savouring the aroma of timbers slowly drying in Oxfordshire's gentile rural surroundings. Perfectly stacked, 'through and through' sawn logs might sit literally for years until they were considered ready for kilning and selling to discerning customers.
It's all gone now, devastated in the last decade by cheaper but actually higher quality square edged sawn packs from Eastern Europe; no split ends, no checks, no knots, no bends, no smells...just metre after metre of perfect, mild oak ready for use with frankly far less trouble for the purchaser.
Two trips last week reminded me of the old yard. I was in Poland, the guest of one of our suppliers. One could rarely, if ever, expect English logs to get close to the quality I saw there. The Polish product is wide, clear, straight and flat with so little defect that the boards could almost have been tropical. The forests of Eastern Europe have presumably been left for generations untouched in order to grow such fine timbers.
The UK woodland story was, and still is, very different. We have been raiding our best trees for centuries clearing the prime stands for shipbuilding, stately homes, educational institutions, furniture and last, but by no means least, naval warfare. Our built heritage is there for all to see but sadly in the forestry department it is woefully diminished.
"Not entirely so" says Philip Koomen, on my other visit this week to his admirable furniture workshop in Checkendon. There you can savour craftsmen built tables, benches, chairs and other quality pieces all made from character English timbers carefully seasoned in Philip's very own backyard.
Of course Philip is correct and there is still much to be cherished in home grown species - his furniture more than speaks for itself - but alas Timbmet's large scale UK "homegrown" production is gone forever replaced by the worthy foreign alternative.
If it is character one seeks then one must search small scale and locally. There are great UK sawmills where local grown timbers can still be found. They can be pricey but then so they should be...nature's character product, as I witnessed close up this week, remains well worth paying for.