Making It follows people at the start of their working lives in the trade: apprentices, students and first jobs.
Apprentice joiner Luke Newton has taken first place in the 2026 Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers Craft Competition, held at Cambridge Regional College.
This year's task was a set of timber steps, designed to test a wide range of joinery skills. Working against the clock, entrants had to read technical drawings, set out, cut accurate joints and assemble the finished piece, mostly with hand tools and only limited battery-powered equipment. The judges marked dimensional accuracy, workmanship, health and safety and presentation.
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Subscribe freeLuke was named overall winner. His prize was £1,000, a Worshipful Company certificate and an engraved set square, presented by Master Joiner Jeremy Baldwin at the Company's Artisan and Apprentices Dinner at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, London.
Luke is an apprentice with Taylor Made Joinery Interiors in Ipswich. His apprenticeship lecturer, Brian Tunbridge, is a liveryman of the Company.
The Company runs the competition to promote high standards in carpentry and joinery and to give apprentices a chance to measure their work against the best of their peers.
The Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers
Text supplied by Tanyia Ingham, Clerk to the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers, 12 October 2026, edited for house style and length; employer and photo credits confirmed by the Clerk on 13 October 2026. Photographs by Luke Newton and Brian Tunbridge, used with Luke's consent. Editorial; nothing was paid for this piece.
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