Craig Williams, in the workshop at Bankfoot
C. Williams Furniture is Craig: one pair of hands, one workshop, in Bankfoot on the old road between Perth and Dunkeld.
He takes in pieces that need mending, polishing or a new seat, and makes furniture to order. Whoever rings is speaking to the person who'll do the work.
On a dreich day the workshop is the best place to be: shavings on the floor, polish in the jar, a chair on the bench waiting for its seat.
The country around the workshop
Perthshire is Big Tree Country. Up the road, the Birnam Oak is believed to be the last of Shakespeare's Birnam Wood, and the Parent Larch at Dunkeld was planted for the Duke of Atholl in 1738.
Perth had over six hundred wrights in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and the town was a centre for laburnum furniture, which cabinet makers called Scotch walnut. One furniture historian rates the collection at Blair Castle perhaps the best of its kind in Scotland.
None of that is Craig's work, and he wouldn't pretend it was. It's the tradition the auld tables and chairs of this part of Scotland come from, and it's why they're worth mending.
What customers say
Craig's Yell listing shows 5.0 from 10 reviews. People write about family tables saved after a bad move, water-marked sets brought back, and nursery chairs re-caned. Read three of them on the home page
Got something for the bench?
The quickest way to find out what a piece needs is a text with a few photos. Craig will look at them and get back to you.
Or, in his own words, "feel free to phone for an estimate or just for some advice."
- The whole piece, standing on its own feet
- The damage, close up, in good daylight
- Underneath a seat or the back of a carcase, if you can
- Any maker's label or stamp you find