Based in North Burlingham near Norwich, Norfolk willow is a small family run business. We build our fences and structures using techniques and materials that have remained basically unchanged for thousands of years.
As our awareness of human impact on the environment has increased so has many peoples desire to work with nature rather than against it this has led to the need to find alternatives to the way we live today. Some answers may lie in our ancient past by looking at how our ancestors in Norfolk lived and maybe learning from them.
Willow is an environmentally friendly and sustainable resource as when cut or “coppiced” it stimulates the rapid growth of new shoots which are cut annually.
Around five thousand years ago woven willow would have been a very familiar and distinctive sight in Norfolk as our ancestors had by this time abandoned a more nomadic lifestyle of hunting to begin farming. This led to the need for houses of a more permanent nature. These houses were constructed of woven willow or hazel rods, wind proofed with a mixture of clay, straw and dung. Fences were also needed to protect crops and enclose land and livestock and were constructed using the same materials and methods that Norfolk Willow use today.
Ancient woven willow fences discovered during archaeological excavations