Back in February, a message came through the website. A silver wedding anniversary was coming up at the end of July. The couple keep bees, and one of them wanted to give the other somewhere to sit beside the hives — a bench made just for the two of them. She had seen ours, she said, and could not stop thinking about it.
That is more or less the perfect brief. A date, a place, and a life to put into the wood.
The book across the back
The backrest is cut as an open book, with the top edge scalloped so it reads as pages and a deep red heart where the two halves meet. On the left-hand page, the title: A love story. On the right, the story itself — two beekeepers in their suits, holding hands between the hives, with bees looping across a yellow sky and the hills rolling away behind them.
Either side of the book, daisies and a pink flower carved in relief among the leaves, a beehive tucked into the corner, and bees everywhere — some carved, some painted, one following a dotted flight path across the page.
The arms
Down the left arm, two bees leave the top and loop their way down a carved flight path to a jar of honey with a cloth lid tied over it. The gold in the jar is built up in layers of paint over the grain, so it catches the light the way honey does.
Down the right arm, five red hearts, one after another.
The legs
A bench like this has room for everything that matters, and the legs are where the smaller things go. On one side, a pair of scissors, painted steel-grey with a highlight down each blade so they read as metal from across a garden.
On the other, a fish leaping up the side of the leg, mid-turn, tail curling back on itself, with a flick of red along the fins.
How it was made
The whole bench is solid oak. The relief carving is done by hand, then painted, then sealed so the colour holds through a Scottish winter beside a row of hives. The seat is oak slats on a solid frame; the arms are shaped from thick oak boards so there is enough depth to carve into.
It went north by courier at the end of July, in time for the day, and a five-star review arrived a few days later — which is the part of the job that never gets old.
A bench for your own story
Most of the benches we make are for remembering someone. This one was for celebrating two people, and it works exactly the same way: you tell us about the life, and we work out where each piece of it goes. Bees and a honey jar for beekeepers; a fish for someone who fishes; scissors, a dog, a tractor, a boat, a favourite flower — whatever it is, there is a leg, an arm or a rail for it.
Typical lead time is four to five weeks. Prices include VAT, and we deliver across the UK.
See more in our carved bench collection, or get in touch with a date, a place, and a story.
