WOODCRAFT SCHOOL - Key Persons

Despite being desk-bound for most of the week in a marketing role, Chris is a passionate student of the natural world and is at his happiest exploring our forests, mountains and countryside. A passionate hillwalker, Chris's interest in nature stemmed from a desire to understand the plants and wildlife he was observing on his walks, a journey that ultimately led him to completing the Practical Ethnobotany and Plant Identification and Wildlife Identification and Tracking Level 4 courses with Woodcraft School, as well as entering into the CyberTracker system. Chris is also involved with Scouting and the Wildlife Trust near his New Forest home.

Gavin grew up in Norfolk, and spent his days outdoors fishing, building camps and generally exploring his local area. He developed a wanderlust in his teens which has never left and was the key to opening a door to the natural world, particularly bird and wildlife watching with an emphasis on animal behaviour and wilderness travel . Bushcraft and expedition skills became a big part of all of this as they gave him the skills to go to these places.Gavin is a mountain leader and has been involved in and led expeditions to various parts of the world, from Northern Canada to Borneo, South America and Nepal and Europe and various countries in Africa. He has a particular interest on the natural world and the anthropology of indigenous peoples and is a great field naturalist.

Phil has been connected with Woodcraft School for many years initially as a student and now as an instructor. He successfully completed our ten month Certificate in Bushcraft Leadership and almost immediately began to work for the company and has proved to be an excellent student and teacher of the subject. Phil now runs several of our programmes under license after many years of training with us, these are, The Certificate in Applied Bushcraft Level 4, The Intermediate Bushcraft Award level 2 and the Traditional Bow making Level 4. These awards are still Woodcraft School qualifications and therefore Phil carries our reputation forwards together with his own. This arrangement reflects our faith in his ability and character as an instructor. Phil is especially interested and skilled in traditional archery also working as a traditional bowyer. In addition. Phil has also taken on our Bow making workshops. He is a level three tracker through CyberTracker conservation, one of only a handful in the country. Phil continues to study in and around the subjects we specialise in and has been successful in completing almost all of our programmes giving him an excellent all round knowledge of our core subjects of bushcraft, ethnobotany and wildlife tracking. Phil also makes and sells traditional bows and arrows and supplies bow staves. If you are interested in any of Phil's excellent bows, arrows and bow staves, or want to book on a bow making course visit his website here