George Barker & Sons are craftsmen in wood, creating sturdy garden furniture in a rustic style. Our comprehensive range of seating, tables, summer houses and fencing will enhance any garden. We are able to supply across the UK via mail order  
picnic tables, planters, window boxes, bird boxes, bird tables, pergolas, tree seats, decking, swing seats, natural, mail order, cumbria, lake district, backbarrow garden furniture, wood, george barker, george barker & sons, timber merchants, craftsmen, tables, chairs, seating, timber, fencing, gates, lap fencing, trellis, sheds, summer houses, bridges, George Barker and Sons are committed to enhancing your garden leisure lifestyle by providing you with solutions for outdoor living. We have been trading as a family since 1858. Despite many changes in our business activities we have always been involved with timber in one way or another from producing swill baskets to the manufacture of summer houses and Japanese bridges! George Barker & Sons are craftsmen in wood, creating sturdy garden furniture in a rustic style. Our comprehensive range of seating, tables, summer houses and fencing will enhance any garden. We are able to supply across the UK via mail order
Lakeland’s Woodland Heritage


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Lakeland’s Woodland Heritage After the glaciers retreated at the end of the last Ice Age 14,000 years ago woodland grew up and covered large parts of Lakeland.

Find out in Lakelands Woodland Heritage how man used this natural resource and how it was changed over the centuries.

Our hours of business are:
Monday to Friday 8am to 4.30 pm
Saturdays 9am to 4pm
 
The coffee shop:
Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm


‘There ys moche wood’ 1537
How was the woodland used in the Middle Ages?

‘The woodes are sore decayed’ 1566
Discover how charcoal burning and iron smelting changed the face of the woodlands and how they reduced in size.

‘Wood for the iron furnaces was sometimes wanting’ 1772
Why did gunpowder save the woodland?

Woodland Today
How you and your family help save woodland.

Woodland Livelihoods
For centuries the woods of Lakeland provided livelihoods for many families. For example, in 1786 a small village in Lakeland supported 6 charcoal burners, 5 chairmakers, 4 carpenters, 4 coopers, 2 candle-box makers, 1 clogger, 1 basket maker and 1 woodcutter.

Discover

Woodland crafts
• Charcoal burning - iron and gunpowder
• Bobbin making - for the Lancashire mills
• Tan barking - for tanning leather
• Turning - goods for work and home
• Clog sole cutting - wooden shoes for the workers
• Hooping - packaging for days gone by
Village crafts
• Swill basket making - no end of uses
• Brush making - the all purpose broom
• Wheelwright - wheels and wagons
• Cooperage - all kinds of barrels
• Handles and sneads - for the workers

A Family Business
George Barker, born in 1843, found employment with William Atkinson, a local blacksmith who had an interest in swill making. The swill making business started in 1858, later became George Barker & Sons. Find out how the business has changed since 1858.

Swill Making Workshop
See the working conditions of the swill maker in our reconstructed swill making workshop with its original machinery and tools.

Today’s workshop
See the activities of the present business from the specially designed viewing windows.

An unusual use for a swill basket
Can you guess? See if you’re right when you visit our Exhibition, but please don’t tell anyone the secret!

The Backbarrow Story
Find out how the village of Backbarrow became home to several different businesses over the years and where the ‘little blue men’ came in.
 
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