Eight of us, a workshop near Abergavenny, and oak frames going up within 90 minutes of it. Josh built his first porch in 2017; Foxtail Oak followed in 2020. This is who we are and how we work.
THE STORY, BY JOSH VAN-MALE
The name comes from a foxtail tenon — the first joint I cut as a boy, working from my father's carpentry books. The first logo was that shape, laid out in oak shavings. I designed my first porch in March 2017 and finished it that July, for a client in Nantyglo, while still working full time for somebody else. Foxtail Oak Ltd was incorporated on 10 July 2020.
I spent five years at Oakwrights from October 2016, first as an oak frame and encapsulation designer, later as an oak frame structural engineer, and drew around fifteen oak frame homes in that time — among them Ghyll House Farm in Sussex and a house at Blairgowrie. Before that, an MEng in mechanical engineering at Cardiff. Foxtail started in the evenings and at weekends around that job, one porch at a time. In the summer of 2019 I built a green oak marquee for my own wedding, trial-fitted in a borrowed barn and raised that August.
Josh Kay joined in 2020. He had run the oak frame workshop at Oakwrights, and helped out at weekends before coming across properly. Alessio Romano followed in 2021. With two more pairs of hands the work stopped being porches alone — garages and cart sheds, then extensions and garden rooms, then full house frames and barn conversions. Face glazing came in house rather than going out to a subcontractor.
There are a few of us now, at Pantygelli, just outside Abergavenny: two workshops and an office, rented from our landlord, Mike. My father Karl runs the back office, which is what makes family-run something other than a figure of speech.
Two workshops and an office on a working farm, and next door the barn our landlord, Mike, is converting, for which we are making the oak roof structure, two glazed screens and an internal oak bridge. It is the most useful thing we have for showing people what they are buying: the frame we are cutting this week is fifty yards from the same work going into a building, so you can see the joint on the bench and then see it in place. It is not finished, which if anything makes it easier to see how it goes together.
Pantygelli, about ten minutes out of Abergavenny. The exact address comes with your visit confirmation. Visits take an hour or two and you are welcome to bring your architect or your engineer. Expect noise, sawdust, a kettle, and whatever is on the stocks that week.
How an oak frame is made →Visit the workshop →
WHERE WE WORK
We design and build within about 90 minutes' drive of the workshop: Monmouthshire, the Brecon Beacons, the Wye Valley and Herefordshire on our doorstep, and out to Newport, the Vale of Glamorgan and Swansea. We supply and install within two and a half hours, and elsewhere in the UK case by case. A frame on its own can go anywhere in the UK.
What we have built in each area:
Everyone who will draw, cut or raise your frame, in one place.
Oak frame designer and structural engineer at Oakwrights before founding Foxtail Oak. Now does the design, the pricing and most of the client conversations. On site he is usually the one with the tape measure arguing about a roof pitch.
Ran the oak frame workshop at Oakwrights before joining us in 2020 — weekends first, then properly. Josh manages projects start to finish and is usually your main point of contact once a job is on, and still takes the lead on the most complex site builds. Out of work he cycles, and travels to watch Aston Villa.
Came to us in 2021 from steel fabrication, new to carpentry but not to making things, after years spent travelling before settling in Abergavenny. Five years on, he cuts the joints and installs our frames. He keeps an allotment and brings in sauces and treats for the rest of us more often than we deserve.
Joined in 2026 with six years in oak and timber framing, plus fine woodworking — carving and inlay. He is the one we go to when a frame needs more than joinery, and has carved house names into porches since he arrived. Outside work he is outdoors, and a committed wild swimmer.
Joined in 2026 from another oak frame firm ninety minutes away, with ten years in oak framing behind him. He is at his best on workshop framing and has been an asset from the first week. A Manchester United supporter, which takes a certain resilience at the moment.
Started with us in February 2025 with no carpentry experience at all, but the way he thought about problems on his trial was enough. We took him on as an apprentice and trained him in the way we frame. He is now a capable framer in his own right, in the workshop and on site.
Five reasons to choose us, and one reason you might not.
Josh spent five years at Oakwrights, first designing oak frames and later as their oak frame structural engineer, after an MEng in mechanical engineering at Cardiff. He designs the frame knowing why it stands up, and the structural calculations are done by our consulting engineer.
The planing, simple mortices and square tenons are machined at our sawmill from our own files, which gives a regular section instead of oak varying by 10 to 20mm. The complex joints, the post and jowl shaping, the assembly, the checking and the finishing are done by our carpenters, and some jobs are still cut entirely by hand.
We pay our sawmills more to cut sapwood out during milling. It is the part of the board most vulnerable to insect attack and decay, and paying to lose it is the simplest way we know of making sure the frame lasts. Green oak is our standard and sap-free is in every price. Air-dried oak is already cut when we buy it, so we can't guarantee that.
We would rather you had a realistic number before we quote than after. So we publish our prices, and we write a guide for most kinds of project we build. If it still looks like a fit, we would usually sit down with you and design the frame together before anything is priced properly.
If the lowest price decides it, we won't be the cheapest quotation you get, and we don't price-match. We will adjust a design within reason and tell you what a change does to the cost, but we won't take the oak grade, the pegged joints or the glazing detail down to match a quotation that is buying something different.
We belong to two trade bodies, the Guild of Master Craftsmen and the Carpenters' Fellowship, and we are an accredited Living Wage Employer. Each link below goes to that organisation's own list, so you can check for yourself.
Guild of Master Craftsmen
We are members. The Guild is a trade association that vets firms before they can join.
The Guild's member search →
Living Wage Employer
Accredited by the Living Wage Foundation: everyone we employ is paid at least the real Living Wage, which is set by the cost of living rather than by government.
The Foundation's list of employers →
Carpenters' Fellowship
We are members. The Fellowship is a UK membership body for timber frame carpenters, set up to advance the practice and study of the craft.
The Fellowship's member directory →COME AND SEE US
The frame on the stocks, the carpenters at work, and a cup of tea.
Arrange a visitTALK TO US
The fastest way to find out if your project is one we'd take on.
01873 379050
