Barn Club: A Tale of Forgotten Elm Trees, Traditional Craft and Community Spirit

From the blurb, I was expecting a lightly written account of how those involved in the project assembled the barn, how they sourced the materials, their problems and how they solved them. Instead I got a highly technical account of Elm trees and their wood as well as the intricate details of cutting and putting together, as it would have been done two hundred or so years earlier, of the whole package. For those with an engineering degree and/or a mathematical mind, this may be a great read; for those of us who don't, it's not.

“Craft is an event as much as a product. It is something that happens. What remains is both in the beauty of the object and in the hearts of those who took part”.I knew I was in good hands when I saw these opening words. But I did wonder how a book about building a barn was going to be able to maintain the interest. I needn’t have worried. It turned into a gentle, interesting, intelligent, surprising, and above all inspiring evocation of a past time that made me both smile and ache. And appreciate even more that it shouldn’t be in the past. I so wish I had the land for a barn.There is much we can learn here.

Ive had an interest in the work and skills related to green oak framing for many years and had little knowledge of the importance of the elm tree in our history. This is a great book to gorw your understanding of the craft around barn building and how it has shaped our village life as well

This book is extremely well written and easy to read. There is plenty of detailed information both about the elm tree and the barn building specifically. The author is in love with the subject and the line drawings are particularly helpful.

Having volunteered to work on Robert's project to construct an elm barn it is amazing to see the whole experience encapsulated in this book. Robert brings a wonderful balance between the hand crafts needed to technically build the barn and the human relationships that underpin the sense of community that are at least, if not more important than the physical timber framing capabilities of the volunteers. Truly inspirational.

This is a beautifully written account of a project to build a barn in a traditional and sustainable way, involving teaching local volunteers to do much of the carpentry by hand. It is written by the instigator and architect, and shows all the passion, expertise and heart, that made the project a huge success. It takes us from finding the trees (elms, unusually), through all the stages of felling, milling, carpentry to make all the joints, to the triumphant climax of raising the barn. It was an absorbing read, full of fascinating detail, with the complexities explained beautifully in numerous hand-drawn diagrams. It will make you want to plan and build your own...

Robert Somerville has managed to write a book about building an elm barn that is every bit as beautiful and authentic as the barn itself. Starting with a study of traditional barns, finding, selecting and felling local elms, milling the logs and shaping hundreds of individual timbers, the story culminates in a joyful barn raising. It must have been a wonderful experience to be a volunteer with Barn Club I am jealous! But Robert has made it possible to participate vicariously by reading his book.

An excellent read for all and a reminder of how important it is to work with local, natural materials to work together to create something beautiful AND sustainable, no matter your background or skill set.