Photos of Etal Village taken by Tyneside photographer
Matthew Auty.
Alan Green and Steve Taylor met at Alsager College in 1972. Alan is originally from Coventry and Steve from Tyneside. After leaving college in 1975 they taught Craft and Design in Tyneside for four years. They set up their Hand Made Furniture business in 1979 in a small workshop in Tynemouth, which had been the studio of a local photographer called Auty. There had always been a desire to live and work in a more rural part of the North East, and when they heard of the possibility of renting their current premises on Ford and Etal Estates in North Northumberland, they jumped at the chance. Alan and Steve have lived and brought up their families with their respective partners, Cheryl and Helen, in Etal village since 1981.
It is an exceptionally picturesque village in a beautiful part of the county. Their workshop is situated right next to the River Till and was originally built, in the early years of the 20th century, to house a water driven turbine which produced electricity mainly for lighting and to run some farm machinery.