Craftsman carves out niche business

A skilled cabinet maker is celebrating a quarter century of running his own business in what is becoming an increasingly rare craft.

Brent Thompson, 48, of Middleton Road, Ilkley, started up on his own shortly after losing his job with another company in the 1980s. He is still going strong now, at a time when the furniture trade is dominated by cut-price imports, and woodwork is no longer a mainstay of the school curriculum.

Brent has seen trends in furniture come and go during his time in the trade – and worked with a huge variety of timber to meet changing tastes. “When I first started out, there was a lot of dark furniture, now it's moved on to the light furniture,” he said. Solid oak and solid ash are among the most popular materials used today, replacing the high-prestige and highly polished mahogany of the 1980s.

He recently worked in the unusual and sought-after tiger ripple sycamore timber, an unusual effect which actually turned up in a tree bought from a local farmer. Brent’s portfolio includes work for local churches, a bench forming part of the clock centrepiece to a shopping centre and an impressive 8ft dining table for the home of golfing star Nick Faldo. “I’ve got timber from all over the world,” he says.

Wharfedale has great links with the world of furniture making, particularly through the great Thomas Chippendale and his Otley connections. Brent has formed his own link with another of the craft’s greats, North Yorkshire’s famous ‘Mouseman’, Robert ‘Mousey’ Thompson. The Mouseman’s trademark was a small mouse, which he always carved somewhere on the pieces he created.

In answer to this – and because he shares the same surname – Brent decided to carve a cat on to his own work, which he claims is to catch all the mice. His comparatively rare trade today also takes him to the Great Yorkshire Show to do demonstrations.

By Amanda Greaves - Ilkley Gazette, February 2010