Corwell

Corwell was formed in 1989 as a business partnership by Simon Corbyn and Les Newell, who have been working together since 1980. Both attended The London College of Furniture and achieved distinctions in their City and Guilds handmade furniture qualifications. The company has a team of cabinet makers who have all studied at college and had full training to become fully qualified craftsmen. Corwell works for clients including the domestic market, interior designers, architects, business and corporate clients.

It specialises in making handmade furniture to exact requirements. Corwell uses timbers including locally grown English Oak, Ash, Sweet Chestnut, Elm, Cherry, Maple, Walnut, Yew and Mahogany. It uses sustainable timbers, purchases wood from like-minded timber merchants, and plants trees in its local village. Corwell's restorers are skilled in French Polishing, Furniture Refurbishment, Veneering, Carving, Wood-Turning, Re-Caning and Re-upholstery. Corwell provides furniture restoration and refurbishment services for antique and modern furniture.

Restoration and bespoke joinery recur throughout the feedback for this Reading workshop, where customers bring pieces many others might write off. A pair of Ercol chairs was repaired so cleanly that the mend could not be spotted, while a fifty-two-year-old table and chair set came back looking new. Simon is named repeatedly for his refinishing, including the top of a forty-year-old Ercol Pandora box, where the match was judged perfect and his knowledge drawn on directly. More intricate work appears too, such as a hand-made replica of a curved headrest for a dental chair of considerable age, which the team took on without hesitation and which the client later upholstered in leather.

A walnut-veneered desk belonging to one customer's father, badly battered beforehand, was returned looking fresh, and a maple extending table with a glass top made to an unusual specification in 2011 is still free of cracks and movement after more than a decade. A mirror in a non-standard size likewise satisfied its owner. Clear quotes and careful discussion of the required work are mentioned, as are prompt visits, friendly and efficient service, and craftsmanship that customers describe in the strongest terms.