The roots of a Suffolk family businessFor over ninety years Titchmarsh & Goodwin have created beautiful furniture. Yet the roots of this family business go back to the eighteenth century. Around 1770, Samuel Goodwin, a carpenter of Woodbridge, Suffolk, sent his son George to join the workshops of a London cabinetmaker. On his return, with all the prestige of a London apprenticeship, George set himself up to design and create fine furniture for the affluent burghers of East Suffolk. He unconsciously founded a dynasty of cabinet and clock-case makers, working as individual craftsmen in and around Ipswich.
A company born of craftsmanship
But it took more than 130 years for this passion for craftsmanship to develop into something more. In 1920 his descendant Gordon Goodwin and Lawrance Titchmarsh founded the company, that, over ninety years on, still thrives at Trinity Works in Ipswich’s Back Hamlet. It is unique in Britain in employing under one roof some of the country’s most gifted wood turners, carvers, cabinetmakers, and French polishers, not to mention a gilder, a glazier and a lacquer artist.
English Oak
Titchmarsh & Goodwin prefer to use our native oak Quercus Robur which is prized for its strong figuration and varied colours which are caused by minerals present in the heavy East Anglian soils. Here, this oak normally reaches maturity between 100-120 years – much faster than European oak which is grown on slow rotations of up to 300 years – thus, the English oak produces wider annular rings, giving grain of outstanding character.
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