One bench, two pairs of hands
Fern Hollow Bindery has been in the back room of the old mill since 2011. It is a small workshop by choice: one job at a time, and the same pair of hands from the first fold to the final press.
A mill room, north light, and a stove
Rowan Mercer spent ten years in a conservation lab before setting up on his own. The bindery began with a second-hand lying press, a sewing frame, and a stack of books from friends who had heard he could sew.
The work is traditional: sections sewn on cords or tapes, spines rounded and backed by hand, leather pared thin with a knife. Nothing is done by machine that can sensibly be done by hand — and a few things are done by hand that a machine would do faster, because that is rather the point.
Nell Foster joined in 2019 as an apprentice and now runs the box-making and the workshop programme. Between them, the two of them answer the phone, sweep up, and make the books.
Repair, don’t replace
A book that can be saved is saved. New covers are the last resort, not the first suggestion.
Materials that age well
Linen, goatskin, wheat starch paste, Japanese tissue. We avoid anything that will turn brittle or yellow in a decade.
Say no when it’s right
Some books are better left alone, and some jobs belong with a paper conservator. We will tell you which is which.
Tools older than the bindery
Most of the equipment came from workshops that closed before we opened. The presses are cast iron and heavy enough that they will not move again in our lifetime; the knives are sharpened on a stone every Friday.
We buy leather from a small tannery in Devon and paper from a mill in the Netherlands. The paste is cooked each morning, because it is better fresh and it takes ten minutes.
- Lying press Cast iron, 1920s
- Sewing frame Maple, made locally
- Nipping press For casing-in
- Paring knives Sharpened Fridays
- Brass type Six to twenty-four point
- Wheat starch paste Cooked each morning
Two people, no reception desk
If you call, one of these two will answer. If you visit, one of them will put the kettle on and clear a corner of the bench.
Rowan Mercer
Binder. Trained in conservation, happiest with a leather reback and a difficult spine. Writes the estimates and does the tooling.
Nell Foster
Apprentice since 2019. Runs the box-making, the edition work and the Saturday workshops. Keeps the schedule that everyone else pretends to follow.
The kettle is usually on
The bindery is open Tuesdays to Fridays, nine until five. It is worth calling first — if the press is running, the doorbell is hard to hear.