Preserve the craft
Pass the skills on. Host drop-in nights, run introductory workshops, and keep a bench of makers working regularly enough that the techniques stay in living memory.
About us
A small charity, a small workshop, a very old craft
We’re a group of heritage craftspeople in County Durham, keeping stick making alive one bench-night at a time.
Registered Charity Number 1212357
Our story
How it started
Durham Stick Makers is a small community of heritage craftspeople based in County Durham. We meet every Monday and Tuesday evening to make and dress walking sticks using the same woods, horns and antlers our predecessors worked with - hazel, holly, ram horn, buffalo horn, roe antler - and the same slow, hand-shaped techniques.
The charity was formed to keep an endangered craft alive. Stick making appears on the Heritage Crafts Association Red List of Endangered Crafts - fewer and fewer people learn to do it, and the skills quietly disappear with the people who hold them. We teach, we make, and we give sticks away to people who need them.
Our mission
What we’re here to do
Put sticks in hands
Provide walking sticks free of charge to people who need them - after illness, injury, or simply because a good stick is out of reach. Nobody who wants a stick should go without one.
Welcome everybody
The workshop is open. Come to learn, come for company, come because you want a stick of your own. No experience needed. The kettle is always on.
Our people
The makers
The sticks we sell are made by members of the charity. Every one has a maker’s name on it.
Michael Timmins
Dedicated to the Craft of Stickmaking
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John Armstrong
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Michael England
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Ernie Robinson
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Alan Robson
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Alan Devlin
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Alec Thompson
The workshop
Fencehouses
Houghton le Spring
County Durham · DH4 6DS
Fencehouses Community Centre
Fencehouses Community CentreFencehouses
Houghton le Spring
County Durham · DH4 6DS
We meet every Monday and Tuesday evening through the year. Drop in at any point - whether you’ve a stick to finish, one to start, or you just want to watch.
Heritage Crafts
A craft on the Red List
Stick making is one of the traditional British crafts on the Heritage Crafts Association Red List of Endangered Crafts - the techniques are at real risk of being lost. We work to keep them in practice, in public view, and in the hands of people who’ll carry them forward.