The story
The bench Arthur built in 1952 is still the first thing you see when the doors open.
Arthur Fairbank came back from his apprenticeship with a box of chisels and a stubborn idea: that the things in a house people touch every day — the stair rail, the sash, the kitchen door — should be made slowly, locally, and once.
Seventy years on, his grandson runs the same workshop from the same yard off the high street. The drawings arrive by email now and the machines are quieter, but every piece still leaves the bench the way Arthur insisted: fitted by the hands that made it.
“If you wouldn't put your name on the back of it, don't put it in someone's house.”
The first bench
Arthur opens a two-man workshop behind the high street — one bench, one saw, and word of mouth.
The second generation
His son Edward takes over, adds staircases and sash restoration, and wins the firm's first architect's commission.
The third pair of hands
Grandson Thomas takes the keys. Same benches, same standards — the joints are still cut by eye and finished by hand.