Northampton College has received a prestigious national award for its successful efforts to tackle the UK construction industry’s shortage of carpenters with heritage skills.
The College’s Carpentry Team has been awarded the Institute of Carpenters (IOC) Duchess of Gloucester Award for the Advancement of Skills within the Timber Industry which recognises organisations that make an outstanding contribution to the industry.
Northampton College Curriculum Manager for Construction, Mark Bradshaw, said: “To combat the shortage of carpenters with traditional carpentry and joinery skills, we created a dedicated Carpentry Team of highly skilled professionals.
“They are committed to developing a strong pipeline of new carpentry professionals who are equipped with the skills needed by the heritage construction sector. The team has developed extensive links with industry to give our students a wide range of opportunities to develop their heritage carpentry skills alongside businesses working for clients in real-world scenarios.
“The College also continuously invests in our facilities and workshops to ensure our students and apprentices develop their skills using industry-standard technologies.”
In 2025, the Carpentry Team led by Carpentry Co-ordinator Tim Chisholm, embarked on a series of projects which enabled students to develop conservation carpentry skills – in addition to the skills they are taught as part of the standard curriculum.
The most ground-breaking of these projects is at Northampton’s historic Delapré Abbey which is undergoing a multi-million pound project supported by the Lottery Heritage Fund to transform its stables into a dynamic, mixed-use development featuring dedicated spaces for retail, events and wellbeing activities.
As part of the project, the Delapré Abbey Preservation Trust took the unprecedented step of handing over the restoration of an abandoned 19th century cottage on the site, known as Gardener’s Cottage Number 2, to Northampton College Construction students and apprentices, including its Carpentry team.
Their work includes the removal and sympathetic restoration of all the cottage’s sash windows using traditional carpentry skills. The students have also cleared out all the cottage’s old woodwork, are carrying out extensive timber repairs to the building’s original doors and mouldings and have installed new timber stud walls and flooring.
The students and apprentices are also benefitting from working with industry professionals with heritage carpentry skills who are involved in the wider regeneration programme at Delapré Abbey.
Carpentry students have also worked on heritage projects for Northampton and Lamport Railway, Abington Park, the Churches Conservation Trust and at Northampton’s oldest pub, the Grade II listed Old Black Lion.
In a letter to the winners, HRH The Duchess of Gloucester, said: “I send my warmest congratulations to each of you on your outstanding achievement, and I look forward to this biennial Award helping to raise the profile of the industry and support the development of the skilled expertise so needed in the United Kingdom.”
For more information about courses available at Northampton College from this September, visit www.northamptoncollege.ac.uk
