Treske Furniture: Meet the Yorkshire furniture makers making timeless classics including chairs for the Queen's funeral

A certain constancy and a respect for tradition underpin the work of Thirsk-based furniture company Treske - and a definite ‘Yorkshire-ness’ too.

“We’re a small company, everybody knows everybody here,” explains CEO Justin Bartlett. “We’re part of the fabric of the town, most of our people live here, we’re an important part of the community and that keeps us rooted in the locality.”

Treske was established in 1973 by ex-Ampleforth College pupil John Gormley – who, despite being a Londoner by birth, found his spiritual home under the gaze of the monumental White Horse and decided to establish his business in Thirsk.

Thirsk appears in the Domesday book as Tresche, the name deriving from the Old Norse for fen or lake. Tresche /Treske/ Thirsk – are different ways of spelling the same thing.

The influence of the Benedictine monks at Ampleforth was clear in Gormley’s approach at Treske, a sense of the Benedictine values of community, stewardship, hospitality and discipline being at the heart of the business, which still occupies the same old maltings that Gormley moved into more than 50 years ago.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s there was a growing interest in self-sufficiency and craft, and Treske can be seen broadly as part of that movement.

Local apprentices literally lived on the premises, learning age-old skills from time-served cabinet makers, eating with Gormley and family at the end of the day, sitting on Treske chairs at Treske tables and sleeping in Treske bunks.

The furniture itself was simple and elegant whilst being robust and well-made, Shakerish-style for a Yorkshire farmhouse, kind-of Habitat-meets-Ercol: “Yorkshire furniture for Yorkshire people with Yorkshire timber.”

Gormley was well-known around local markets and fairs, where he’d set up stall and sell direct to the public. Some years later, and a few miles up the A1 from Thirsk, Gormley’s youngest brother Anthony – also an old Ampleforthian - would also produce work that blended elements of the White Horse with certain religious overtones – the Angel of The North quickly became one of the UKs most-loved works of public art.

In parallel with making furniture for the home, John Gormley also began to produce ecclesiastical furniture – again, the Ampleforth education clearly played a part, a feeling for church buildings being close to Gormley’s heart.

“It’s a side of the business which is still incredibly important to us today," explains Bartlett.

“There’s a strong local tradition of craftsmen making church furniture - most famously Robert Mousey Thompson of Kilburn – and we’re extremely proud to be one of the local companies continuing those skills.”

Following a period of illness, Gormley had been unable to manage the business and after his death his family were looking for new owners who would uphold the Treske values and build on the foundations Gormley had established. Bartlett took the helm at Treske in 2000.

His upbringing was agricultural but Bartlett had always loved working with wood, learning a basic grasp of tooling and turning in his father farm workshop.

“I loved making things, often spectacularly badly,” he laughs, “but enough to make me interested in woodwork and to appreciate the craft and materials.

“I’d done an MBA and I’d been working in business development and I was on the look-out for a British fine furniture company I could take on and develop.

"The opportunity at Treske came up, my wife and I both wanted the family to live in a rural area and be part of a real community, so it felt like the perfect fit.”

Under Bartlett’s stewardship, Treske has grown and developed.

Bespoke kitchens (and these kitchens are seriously and beautifully bespoke) are now an important part of the business alongside desirable, timeless furniture for the home which continues to be something Treske is known for.

The farmhouse-style Helmsley range, a Gormley-era classic, is still manufactured by Treske in Thirsk, alongside more modern ranges such as Ayton and Artisan.

But the Treske reputation for timeless Yorkshire quality ensures that the company continues to be a market leader in prestigious contract work with churches, colleges, universities and crematoria, not only in the UK, but all over the world.

The chairs that Gormley-era Treske produced with York-based architect Martin Stancliffe for St Paul’s cathedral will be in use for many years to come – and in 2022 Treske delivered the chairs for St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle which were used in the committal service following the death of Queen Elizabeth. Manchester, Ripon and Liverpool cathedrals all feature Treske furniture including seating altars, lecterns, kneelers and more, along with countless other historic churches and crematoria throughout the UK .

It's a great source of pride for Justin Bartlett and the team.

“To be able to produce furniture for historic buildings and places where people have such important, emotional experiences is a real honour," he says.

“These are also places where the furniture needs to feel timeless; these pieces might be constantly in use for hundreds of years so it’s important that they are made by craftspeople to withstand the test of time.

" I believe it’s a real testament to the team we have and the foundations that John Gormley laid, that we continue to be asked to produce work for these historical spaces.”

Whilst human hands will always be at the heart of the work Treske produce, Bartlett and staff are no Luddites.

Where new processes and technologies can enable fresh approaches then they are embraced, but embraced in harmony with the old ways.

The latest CAD and CNC machines might enable beautiful curves to be cut with laser precision, but they will be found next to careworn planes, files and saws on old work benches beneath wooden beams in a building that has seen nearly 200 years of working life.

More than 20 years after John Gormley’s death, the crafts, skills and values on which Treske grew and prospered in Thirsk remain strong with Justin and his team.

And in a world where so much seems transient, it’s good to know that there’s a corner of Yorkshire where things are still being built to last. At Treske there’s still a sense that some things are timeless.

treske.co.uk