Woodwork at Workbridge is a popular activity for our service users. The woodwork department produces bespoke wooden products for customers as well as year-round wooden products in the garden centre – bird boxes, bug hotels and hedgehog homes! It’s a fun activity, taught in stages, so that all our service users can learn new skills and be involved.

The woodwork department has recently welcomed a new workshop to their work space in the form of woodturning 

Woodturning involves shaping a piece of wood while it spins around an axis on a lathe. A lathe is a machine that shapes wood using a number of different cutting tools that are worked into the wood.

The department recently purchased a brand new lathe, kindly funded by Workbridge’s charity shop, and we are making great use out of it!

We are very grateful for all the support we receive from Workbridge Charity Shop. The funds raised from the charity shop support service users and departments at Workbridge. 

Stuart Whitney, Senior Vocational Skills Instructor for woodturning said:

“It’s very exciting to be using the new lathe in woodturning. The lathe has a much longer reach than our current equipment which means we can work with more wood and make bigger items like coat stands for example. It is great fun for the service users and definitely worth having a go if you’d be interested in taking up the activity in Workbridge”.

There are two locations to take up woodturning at Workbridge.

Patients of William Wake House in St Andrew’s Healthcare can get involved in woodturning at Workbridge’s Heavy Industry workshop, while limited sessions are now available in our new woodturning workshop for service users at Workbridge.

How to refer

Express an interest in referring for woodturning later in the year:

Telephone 01604 872770 - Speak to one of our friendly staff members about the possibility of joining or referring someone to Workbridge.

Come and visit us! See what activities are on offer at Workbridge, meet other service users, talk to staff and discuss how you might fund your sessions.

Complete our referral form. Click here to access our referral form. Once you have completed the form, you can return it via email to workbridgereferrals@standrew.co.uk or by post to Workbridge, Braye Centre, Bedford Road, Northampton, NN4 7AD. Once funding is agreed, we will contact you and arrange the date of your first session.