A tribute to Reg Sherwin, woodturning royalty
R
eg Sherwin, who was well known as the resident woodturner at Avoncroft Museum of Buildings, has died at the age of 83.
His eldest daughter Jane Charles has written this tribute for Completely Bromsgrove. Reg had lived in Bromsgrove since the early 1960s where he worked in engineering after a short career as an armourer in the REME. He married his childhood sweetheart in 1963 and the couple had two daughters, Helen and I. He took voluntary redundancy from working with Rolls Royce engines at Hymatic in Redditch to set up a woodworking business at his home in Stoke Prior. After moving into a workshop at The Wharf at Stoke Prior, Reg started to employ up to nine men who made a variety of brush handles for Hind’s Timber Products, wooden barrels for shire horses to pull in carts and reproduction warming pan handles. In the early 1980s the business took a more creative direction. Reg was working on his own and he started doing large commissions, teaching woodworking and writing for magazines. We were brought up selling his work at various craft fairs, always the last to leave a venue because he had taken the lathe to do demonstrations. Reg was one of the founding members of the Association of Woodturners of Great Britain (AWGB) in 1987, with the membership number 007! He also set up two local woodturning groups in Droitwich and Burcot. In 1989 he was invited to become the resident woodturner at Avoncroft Museum where he enjoyed demonstrating to the public on high days and holidays and running his business from the same site.
10 Completely Bromsgrove
Avoncroft is famous for its re-enactment weekend events and Reg would often be asked to turn reproduction bowls for feasts and toggles for costumes. Reg’s writing and demonstrating skills took off in the early 1990s and he visited the USA, South Africa, Belgium, Ireland and the Isle of Man to speak to woodturning groups. He collaborated with tool manufacturers and demonstrated their tools and machinery at various trade shows, promoting different tools he had designed. Reg also ran Bromsgrove Fencing Group (BFG) for around 20 years after taking up fencing in the army. A fully qualified coach, he ran the group from South Bromsgrove High School, also teaching in Redditch and Kidderminster. Bromsgrove was a hub of fencing competitions in the late 1970s and 1980s and he was always ready to suppor t new groups as well, lending out kit to visiting teams if they needed it. He gradually retired from teaching and writing, spending time travelling with mum and playing grandad to his five grandchildren. Reg had not lost his good eye for target shooting and was a valued member of local shooting groups. In 2014 he was diagnosed with dementia and spent his last 13 months at Housman Cour t care home. Although he had lost his quick mind for storytelling and jokes, he recognised us until the end and will be sorely missed by the staff and everyone who knew him in his jam-packed life. Reg Sherwin - January 5th 1937 – August 10th 2020
