Furniture of the future at Tudor Hall  

Exhibition at Little Moreton Hall until 17 July

A revolutionary new type of furniture is featured in an exhibition at historic Little Moreton Hall, near Congleton.

Lamp shades, a table and part of a chair, all ‘ready- made’ by training trees to grow round shaped ‘formers’ and using grafts to make ‘living’ joints are featured in a display in the Chapel Chamber of the Tudor hall.  Photos, artwork and other artefacts help to explain how the furniture is grown at the plantation of the ‘Full Grown’ company in Derbyshire.

Jo Williams, from Little Moreton Hall said: ‘This furniture is really different from our massive oak ‘Board’ table, our ‘Cupboard of Boxes’, and the ‘Great Round Table’ which have all stood in the hall for more than 400 years.

‘It also provides an interesting contrast with the oak frame which forms the heart of the Hall itself. The Hall was built by craftsmen who shaped timber after it had been cut down. Craftsmen create this new furniture while the trees are still alive.’

Gavin Munro, the artist and designer who set up ‘Full Grown’ nine years ago said: ‘Our furniture is a complete re-think of how wood is used. We train and prune young tree branches into appropriate shapes and graft branches together so that the object grows into one solid piece. It takes time; four years to grow a lamp shade and six years to grow a chair. Then we harvest the pieces in the winter and let the wood season before it is planed and finished to show off the grain.’

Jo added: ‘Although this might seem an amazing new art form it does have some history. There is evidence that the ancient Greeks and Egyptians grew stools and that the Chinese grew tree roots directly through chair-shaped rocks to form the chair legs.

Visitors who come to explore this historic hall are certainly finding it a fascinating addition to what they can see and do here.’

The ‘Full Grown’ exhibition is at Little Moreton Hall until 17 July.

Little Moreton Hall  is normally open Weds – Sun, 11am – 5pm. For more information visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/littlemoretonhall or call 01260 272018.

To find out more about Full Grown visit www.fullgrown.co.uk

Top image: Shapes of the future. Tudor Gentlewoman Vida Graham with some of the ‘grown’ lamp shades at  Little Moreton Hall. C Alan Ingram/National Trust