Iconic Pieces of furniture crafted in solid certified British ash.
Welcoming a new era
Ercol has been proud to partner with Grown in Britain (GiB) since 2023 producing a collection of our products in British-Certified ash.
The longevity of our products, through their design and quality enables embodied carbon to be captured across generations.
Securing British woodlands for generations
The ercol GiB partnership is an important one that is about reestablishing the UK supply chain of timber for furniture, which declined significantly over recent decades. It will drive direct investment into the British timber industry with the vision of establishing a home-grown supply chain whilst supporting and helping to maintain our British woodlands.
The GiB project has enabled us to ensure that the British ash in ercol furniture is home grown and from well managed woodlands. As specialist furniture makers, we are proud to be working with British-grown timber once again.
Features of Ash
ercol has worked with Ash for many years and we know that it can range in colour from pale cream to light straw, with occasional small black mineral streaks, there is also Olive ash which will look darker. You will see many differences between American, European and British ash which is dependent on climate and altitude along with other factors.
It is difficult to determine the colour of any timber even if it comes from one country. For example, there are various species of ash that grow in America under very different climates across the country. The weather from the north to the south, along with the altitude and soil contrasts, vary so the colour is dependent on all of these factors.
Marino medium sofa made from GiB ash in CM (clear matt)
Fairmile dining table made from GiB ash in OA (oak on ash)
Factors that affect the Characteristics of Ash
- The higher the altitude, the slower the material grows.
- The more southernly and closer to sea level tends to grow faster.
- The species of ash can affect the grain configuration and the colour .
- In the same way people’s skin adapts to the country and climate they live in, trees do the same and reproduce accordingly.
- The material the tree is grown on will affect the tree’s characteristics, for example, a tree grown on chalk will create a whiter material and a tree grown on clay tends to be darker.
- The centre of a tree tends to be darker in colour and gets whiter towards the outside, dependent on the size and age of the tree.
- How quickly the tree has grown will affect the growth rings, if its grown slower the tree tends to be healthier, and the rings are closer together.
- The way the timber is cut will give it a different appearance; crown or quarter cut.
- Human intervention obviously alters the trees growth by planting the seed and cutting it down.
The GiB ash that we are using at ercol has grown in the UK and is often a darker ash timber with more prominent grain patterns due to our varying climate in the UK throughout the year. The European and British ash are the closest in similarity and generally, it is found that American ash is very pale, European ash is slightly darker, and British ash is often the darkest of the three.
