Old woodworking books

For the past two years my wife and I have gone to a Burns night over the entire last weekend of January with friends to a pub/hotel in Cumbria, England called the Fat Lamb. Much ale and whisky is consumed as well as the piping in of the haggis.

The piper leads the way and the youngster at the back is carrying the cooked haggis ready for the ceremony

On the Saturday of the weekend on both years we have gone to an old mill in Sedbergh called Farfield Mill. This is an old Victorian cotton/woollen mill and has been converted into a heritage museum with workshops. On one of the floors of the building there are a few craftspeople in their own workshops. There is a silversmith, hat maker, artists to name but a few. There is also a store selling old books. Needless to say my eye always wanders to the woodworking section. There are lots of books in this section from recent ones to ancient ones.

Small section of woodworking books

Moving along the shelf

On the bottom shelf was this book on the left

I was drawn to one book in particular called "Modern Cabinet Work. Furniture & Fitments. An Acount Of The Theory & Practice In The Production Of All Kinds Of Cabinet Work & Furniture" by Percy Wells and John Hooper. This book was dated 1909 and was expensive. I made a note of it and then looked on Amazon to see if it was available. It was for sale by the Oxfam store in Magdalen Street Norwich for the sum of just £18 + shipping.

The book came a day after I ordered it and is in fantastic condition - much better than the one in the store at Farfield Mill. It is a hardbacked tome of 384 pages. I opened it and on the inside cover was a hand written note. It says "Presented to E.F Chaplin by his loving wife November 5th 1909". I imagine it was taken to the charity shop by a relative of the original owner. I will now read it and get many years of enjoyment from this book which is now over a century old. It sits on my shelf as a tribute to the original recipient who must have asked his wife to buy it for his birthday all those years ago.

I have also bought some more books which I am awaiting delivery some as cheap as 1 penny up to a few pounds. These I also saw in that book store in Farfield Mill. If you want some good woodworking books from the past then get yourself over to Farfield Mill for a great day out