Workshops & making
Hands-on woodworking, green wood craft and practical projects for adults, families and groups.
Explore Wanstone →Community Interest Company · East Kent
Creative
Community
Makers
Building confidence, connection and practical skills through making.
Real people · real making
People→Skills→Making→Confidence→Legacy
Making together in East Kent
Practical skills, with people at the heart.
Silverback brings people together through woodworking, craft, community projects and hands-on learning across East Kent. From our Wanstone wood yard to commissioned builds and outdoor learning, the aim is simple: learn by doing, contribute something useful and leave people and places stronger.
“Every person has something to offer. Making together gives that something room to grow.”
Community projects
Useful builds and shared work that develop confidence, belonging and practical skills.
See projects →Family & forest learning
Forest School principles, fire, tools, creativity and nature-led learning across generations.
Explore Wild Ways →Corporate making days
Teams learn together while creating a legacy bench or another useful piece for community benefit.
Plan a team day →Structures & places
Roundhouses, seating, shelters and learning environments made with purpose.
Discuss a build →
Wanstone Court · St Margaret’s
Wanstone
The Chestnut Wood Yard
A working place for carpentry, green woodworking, craft and shared making. Participants learn how to use tools, understand timber and turn raw material into something useful.
Three-legged stoolsBenchesMallets & maulsPractical tool skillsFamily makingGroup days
Ask about a workshopWanstone Woodworks ↗Selected work & stories
Real work. Real people. Community legacy.
Explore the people, skills and craftsmanship behind our community benches, school roundhouses and Kent Downs Arts Trail work.
Practical making · East KentSkills learned by doing
School commissionPriory Fields roundhouse · explore ↗
Community seating · DoverCharlton Green benches · view story ↗
Community skills · DoverElms Vale Park bench project
Kent Downs / arts workKent Downs arts trail · explore ↗
People, places & makingCommunity outreach · explore ↗
School commission
Priory Fields roundhouse
A timber roundhouse commissioned for Priory Fields School, creating a place to gather and learn outdoors.
Arts trail · collaboration
Kent Downs arts trail
Silverback has been involved in creating, maintaining and bringing the Kent Downs Arts Trail pieces to life through practical making and community participation.
Pierre Woodward constructed Monumenta Romana, working from a design by Charles Holland Architects. For After the Black Gold, Silverback ran workshops with local people to add carved decoration to the piece and refurbished its chestnut-tile roof.
We continue to help care for and maintain the trail pieces for the Kent Downs Landscape Partnership, combining craftsmanship, conservation and community involvement.
Kent Downs National Landscape ↗
Community seating · Dover
Charlton Green benches
Commissioned by Dover District Council, these timber seats were made by Silverback volunteers and trainees for Charlton Green in Dover.
Explore the photographs to see the timber being shaped, the joint detail and the finished seating in place.
Ask us about community projects ↗
Community outreach
Learning together through making
Practical work gives people space to learn alongside one another, build confidence and create something useful. Silverback shares skills through patient, hands-on guidance.
Outreach in action
Making, learning and sharing outdoors
People, places & making
Silverback in action
A glimpse of the places we work, timber taking shape and finished pieces made by hand.
Wild Ways
Learn, make and connect outdoors.
Wild Ways brings families and groups together through Forest School, practical woodland skills and creative outdoor learning. Cook over an open fire, build dens, explore whittling and fire-lighting, and learn at your own pace with patient guidance.
Ask about Wild Ways
Corporate & social value
Build a team. Leave a community legacy.
Silverback’s corporate days move beyond a standard away-day. Teams learn practical skills together and can create legacy benches, seating or other agreed pieces for schools, community groups and shared spaces.
Talk about a legacy day
The people behind Silverback
Experience shared. Skills passed on.
A small leadership team with complementary strengths in outreach, skilled making and organisational development.
Pierre Woodward
Master Craftsman · Co-Director
Skilled making, timber work, structures and craft knowledge shared with participants.
Cormac Martin
Community Outreach Practitioner · Artist · Forest School Instructor
Community-facing delivery, creative practice and practical programmes.
Sam Bennett
Director · Business Development & Bid Writing
Partnerships, funding and organisational development.
The Silverback way
Tree → timber → tools → making → caring for what we create.
Materials have value, skills can be shared, and what we make should strengthen the people and places around us.
Start a conversation
What could we make together?
Talk to Silverback about Wanstone workshops, community programmes, Wild Ways, corporate social-value projects or a commissioned structure.