Charley Brentnall is a recognised leader in the UK’s oak framing industry and helped to drive the current renaissance in timber-framing in the UK.
When Charley established Carpenter Oak over thirty years ago, many of the skills of traditional timber framing had been lost to history. Those medieval skills had to be rediscovered – and the best way to do this was to undertake conservation work on many of our oak frame buildings, using almost forensic techniques to uncover evidence of past construction methods so that we could relearn those forgotten skills.
Charley has led some of the UK’s most important oak-frame conservation projects, including the restoration of the ceiling at Windsor Castle and the restoration of Shackleton and Scott’s huts in Antarctica.
