Behind the scenes at A Hutchinson and Sons near Kendal

Behind the workshop doors there is everything you might expect and an equal number of things you might not.

Tidy piles of varying types of wood, neatly hung tools and impressive machinery, rooms tinged with the smell of sawdust, high quality, handmade doors and windows nearing completion for soon-to-be-happy customers, they are all part of the woodwork at A Hutchinson and Sons, at Levens, near Kendal.

But sitting on a workbench, covered in a duvet and ready for a big reveal, is young joiner Robbie Hutchinson’s pride and joy, something a bit different, unique in fact, something very special.

Weighing in at 68kg, the Shaker Garrett table Robbie freely admits is a product of his passion for wood and OCD nature when it comes to fashioning it. The 29-year-old calculates that 230 hours of hard work went into its craftsman built form over a period of six months – when he wasn’t doing his day job with his dad Chris, 66.

“Like a lot of my creations it started out with a rough drawing – I’m not that good at drawing – then I started sectioning the timber sizes, then sorting a cutting list,” says Robbie, who works for the family firm, founded in 1959 by his granddad Alan, a joiner-cum-undertaker.

“I wanted ball and claw feet because that is a sign of quality on any piece of furniture; they are the ultimate statement, and if I couldn’t make the feet I would have had to have redesigned the table.”

The purple heart wood balls were turned on a lathe and sandwiched between roughly cut solid oak before being hand carved. “I didn’t know if it was going to be possible and I’ve got scars on one of my fingers from chiselling them,” he says.

From there the solid oak table developed with purple heart wood inlays in the solid drawers. “Then my dad pointed out that if I had anything in the drawers you wouldn’t be able to see the inlays, so I routed them into the top as well, with a Celtic knot for the endless circle of life.”

Robbie and Chris Hutchinson (Image: Ian Lamming) Once completed Robbie entered the table into this year’s Country Fest Show, where like much of his work, it secured first in class and champion exhibit. If it was for sale the materials and hours of labour involved would push the price beyond the £10,000 mark. But it’s not, it’s for the house he hopes to buy one day.

It’s not too surprising really that the piece is of such high quality when Robbie thinks back to when he first started fashioning wood.

“When I was a child I started making my own model farms,” he recalls. “Dad would cut the pieces out on the machines and I’d glue them together. Most of them have lasted and the attic is full of them.

“Then I joined Young Farmers and entered the joinery competitions staged at the annual field days. At the first one I made a model farm and came second.

The chair Robbie made in just an hour in the Young Farmer's National Pallet Challenge (Image: Ian Lamming) “I made a wheelbarrow from sapele, a hardwood that is difficult to cut because the grain goes both ways. I left it with a raw finish so the judges could see the detail and the workmanship and it took best in show at Cartmel Show, the first time I’d got a best in show. It is nine years old now and still hasn’t any cracks in it.”

After leaving Dallam School, Milnthorpe, he joined the family business in 2010, the same year Alan died, and was instructed further by his dad, working by day on anything required by the building trade and after hours creating more fine furniture. “I just love wood,” he says. “I can be at work all day and have a hard day, then I come back into the workshop and start making things – it seems to calm me.”

Next, a rack featuring wooden cylinders for wine arranged around a solid bottle. “I just love making things that are unique, that you’ll never find in a shop,” says Robbie. “With the rack I had to work out the exact bevel on each section of timber to create a perfect cylinder then the same procedure again to create the outer barrel around them.”

An intricate chopping board, of walnut and tulip, oak and sapele, features a 3D optical illusion. A large wooden clock uses solid oak with tulip segments to show the time – another 100 hours of loving craftsmanship went into making that.

A miniature French streetlight, again made of oak, lost a single mark from the judges as the lead wasn’t hidden from view.

Even more harsh during another competition was Robbie being pushed down into seventh place with a beautiful spinning top in its lavish display box because it didn’t spin well enough for the judges – though it did pick up best in show at another event. It is all part of the learning curve.

An intricate wooden basket, made in the form of a hot air balloon basket, was only given half marks because judges could not believe Robbie made it himself. “I did offer to talk the judges through the various imperfections but to no avail,” he recalls.

“I was once asked to make a post box but made a post office instead. But I was beaten into second place by a plain box because I hadn’t put a lock on to make it secure. A lock wasn’t added due to the rules stating that no metal was to be used. You have to be careful making sure you follow rules to a T.”

Robbie's wine rack (Image: Ian Lamming) Salt and pepper mills, a frame with an oak tree carved in the back, a unique cartwheel farm sign, an ash and purple heart xylophone, a Celtic bow rolling pin and a Beauty and the Beast clock, are among 25 wooden works of art he has created over the past ten years.

Robbie even won the Young Farmer’s National Pallet Challenge by making an armchair with a tree-shaped back in rough wood in just an hour.

“We had an old music box that was full of woodworm and wouldn’t sell,” he recalls. “So I completely remade the box to the exact same specification from oak, as well as taking the mechanism to bits. It plays perfectly albeit a bit out of tune because some the seven cylinders are out of true, so I’m looking for new ones. I just love making things, it’s in my blood.”

Chris may have taught Robbie his craft but even he is amazed by the quality of his work. “I am very proud of him,” he says. “He does things that I say are not possible. I go off and come back and he has done them.”

Robbie says: “Dad has taught me such a lot over the years and at the finer end I just try it. If you don’t try it you will never know. I just give it a go and if I fail, I fail. Nothing is impossible, there has got to be a way, and I do a lot of research on the internet.

“It’s funny, I was pushed into my first show but have kept winning ever since. Not many people can do the finer side – cabinet making is a dying art – but I love coming back to the workshop at night and at weekends and doing a bit. I broke my screwdriver handle recently and most people would have thrown it away. I made a new handle from purple heart and it’s back in my toolbox.”

Robbie is now too old to be part of Young Farmers but is turning his hand to judging and consultancy.

“I really enjoyed being a member of Grayrigg Young Farmers and I was secretary for three years,” he says. “As well as the competitions I had a go at walling and public speaking and took the YFC National Achiever Award, putting me in the top five aspiring rural leaders in the country, which I was proud of.

“It is such a fantastic organisation. It has pushed me to do amazing things. I’m really glad I got into it. I wouldn’t have done all these things without it.

“My granddad was very good at what he did but only did it for work. My dad is my hero when it comes to work. The things he can do are amazing. We have done quite a lot of work at Levens Church where tradition is important. My dad shows me work he has done there in the past and it looks like it has been in place hundreds of years.”

When Robbie isn’t working, he is walking the Wainrights and has 177 of the 214 peaks under his belt so far.

“Even then, when I’m out in the hills, I’m thinking of ideas for my next creation,” he says. “I’ll take over the family business when dad retires and will have to take someone on to help with the lifting.

“I keep drawing my ideas and want to go bigger and better. I’m currently looking at making a knotted grandfather clock, which has only ever been done once before. I have it on the drawing board so it will happen one day.”