What a great way to start the May Day bank holiday weekend with a couple of days woodturning in Daventry.
It was our first time being part of the Tudor Rose Woodturners show, and we were honoured to be asked to attend. This annual show has been running for a few years now and has 13 clubs attend with their stands, demonstrators, trade stands and competitions across 2 days.
Being newbies to the show it was a bit of a learning curve, so we were extremely grateful to all club members who provided items for our stand. I hope that you will agree that it showcased some of the amazing work that our members turn, and we were proud of how it looked for our first attempt.
As we walked around the show there were plenty of inspiring items on other clubs stands as well. Here are the photographs for you to see.
Throughout the 2 days there were various competitions for the clubs to enter from Best Stand, Best Pieces, and a bowl of fruit, which were all turned prior to the show, to a captive ring goblet, decorated platter and a 3 legged stool which were all turned at the show. We were grateful to Trevor, Bruce and Jeff for putting themselves forward to represent the club, and they did a sterling job in what was stiff competition.
Here are the photographs of the entries for the turned bowl of fruit competition and as you can see the standard was exceptional. Unfortunately, we were not placed in this competition
We did have some successes over the 2 days!! Trevor picked up a joint 3rd place for his turned goblet with a captive ring. Trevor had been practising before the show and produced a beautiful goblet in zebrano with not one, but two captive rings!! Well done Trev.
We also entered 3 pieces from our stand into the best pieces competition. We chose a spalted urn which was turned by Mike Delves, a segmented urn and segmented bowl which had both been turned by Ray Piggott, as they had all been getting attention and compliments on the stand.
To our absolute delight we got another 3rd place out of 13 entries, which was a fantastic achievement for our first visit to the show.
Of course all of this would not be possible without the help and support of our members. I would like to thank Mike Crockett for organising everything and making sure that we were at the right place at the right time. Thanks must also go to Trevor, Bruce, Jeff, Carl, Peter, Paul and Sam who came along to support the stand. I would also like to thank all of the club members who came along to visit the show and give us their support. I think we had 14 club members on each of the 2 days, and it was great to see you all.
So that was Woodworks at Daventry 2026. It was an excellent show and thanks must go to Tudor Rose Woodturners for putting it on and organising everything. It is certainly a show that is worth going to and it is relatively close compared to other woodturning shows.
We made a lot of new friends, saw a lot of inspirational ideas, and extended our standing in the woodturning community. I am pleased to say that we have already been invited back to next years event.
See you at Daventry in 2027!!
well done Burcot woodturners and well done all the members who represented the club