The Rise of Cob-It

Hi all and welcome to the blog.


Seven months ago I was forced to give up work to help care for my eldest son, who had been diagnosed with Leukaemia.


One evening in a break in Chemotherapy, my wife and I were sat watching one of my favourite tv shows, River Cottage.
During the show one of the River Cottage crew built a cob oven in a back garden and within the same day was cooking delicious looking pizzas.


I felt inspired to follow in these footsteps but first, as is my way, I felt compelled to educate myself. So I set about reading every blog and thread on the subject as well as a very good book written by Kiko Denzer and his wife Hannah Field, both of whom are accomplished oven builders.


Within a few weeks I had accumulated enough knowledge to build a basic oven. 
This first oven took me ten hours to build and fire for the first time, and cost me very little in materials.


It was after the initial success of this oven that I decided that I could make a living building ovens.


Whilst surfing through yet another cob related thread, I cam across a company called Edwards Eco Building. Edwards Eco Building offer courses on cob construction, which was a completely new concept to me. Could you really build a house from mud that wouldn't resemble something akin to those in Africa.


After much research (again) I decided to sign up to the cob house construction course provided by Edwards.


Shortly before Christmas 2010 I was invited to attend a presentation at the local High school along with my wife and eldest son. After the presentation I had an informal chat with the Headmaster, and asked if he would be interested in my coming into the school to demonstrate the features and benefits of building with cob.


The Headmaster showed an interest and asked me to get in touch in the New Year..


Today I met with the Headmaster (Mr Rose) and Mr Hayden who is part of the D&T department. I explained in detail that I would like to come into the school during the finer weather and help the children build a large cob oven, big enough to bake several loaves of bread.


Mr Rose was very excited at the prospect of this project and all the good it will do for the pupils in the long term.


As this and other projects take shape I will detail it in this blog, so keep an eye out for updates.


As this whole story seems to be leading in a deeply vocational direction, I have decided to establish a company called Cob-It.


Please check out the website:


www.cob-it.co.uk