Meet the Staffordshire arborist transforming unique trees into bespoke furniture
From redwoods to oaks, John Banner knows more than most about trees. He has been working as an arborist for more than 20 years.
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Sometimes trees will need to be felled due to subsidence, rot, disease or for safety reasons.
But John, who lives near Brewood, has found a way to ensure they can still be admired for many years to come by transforming unique trees into bespoke furniture.
And one of his benches can now be seen and used by visitors to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
“Since I was a teenager, I have wanted to have a go at making furniture.
“I started doing it as a hobby a few years ago and now I have turned it into a business.
“It began when I was living on the Weston Park estate.
“I wanted some furniture for my garden but everything looked lost in the garden because it was such a big open space.
“I decided to try making some benches out of some timber I had stacked up in the garden from previous jobs and it worked out really well.
“It is a nice way to resuse trees rather than them becoming firewood or being chipped,” explains the 40-year-old.
