Coombeswood Canal Trust Open Weekend 7th & 8th June.

For our first outdoor event of 2025 we pitched up at the Coombeswood Canal Trust Open Weekend in Halesowen. Despite the forecast for thunderstorms and rain, the weather wasn’t half as bad as expected and we were able to enjoy a weekend of demonstrating and talking to the public.

This wasn’t the first time that the club has attended the Trust’s Open Weekend. Our last visit was pre-covid back in 2019, and it was good to be back on familiar ground in beautiful surroundings. The Trust hold their Open Weekend every two years.

Once everything was set up, it did not take long for the lathe to be switched on and turning commenced.

By attending shows such as this, it gives us the opportunity to promote woodturning and raise awareness of our club and the things that we do.

It also allows us to support charities, such as the Coombeswood Canal Trust who are trying to raise funds to continue their own work within the community.

Over the weekend we spoke to a number of people who expressed an interest in getting started in woodturning, so hopefully we will welcome them as visitors to one of our club nights in the near future.

As usual, we also had our craft shop set up which allowed members to sell their turned items over the weekend. There was a real variety of pieces on display and having the member on hand to explain how it was turned and what wood was used only goes to emphasise the hand made nature of each piece.

Of course we could not do any of this without the good will and support of club members. Over the weekend we had 10 members on the stand at one time or another helping out. So we would like to thank (in no particular order): Tim, Roger, Trevor, Mike C, Richard, Matty, Carl, Paul Peter and Mike D for freely giving up their time to help out on the stand. It was also nice to see other club members pop along to say hi and give moral support!