Unlike most of the group, when I moved in to the woodland on Aprill 22nd, I didn't have a tent. I slept in the bender we had erected for work parties after we had purchased the land in December. The bender was a long way up the hill so it was a long climb to make several times each day.

As my son was coming to visit me during his half term holiday, I decided to construct a bender. This was to be my first attempt.

I made a floor out of six pallets with sycamore poles threaded through them. These were rested on the trunk of a fallen ash tree which was placed on large rocks at the downhill end, and on smaller rocks uphill. The floor was later covered in reclaimed hard board and carpet to reduce drafts and was perfectly level according to a spirit level.

With the floor complete, I cut sycamore for bender poles. Normally hazel, willow or ash would be used but coppicing during the summer may harm the trees so I used sycamore as this is an invasive species which requires constant thinning. The poles were placed in the ground and bent over to form arches that were tied together.

The structure was then covered in the canvas of an old frame tent. The tent's zipper entrance provided the door and a hole cut in the window provided an exit for the flue pipe from my wood burning stove.

This structure proved fine for a while and for the visit from my son. But a long spell of rain when I left the door open resulted in a very damp floor that refused to dry out, so I started work on a more lasting temporary dwelling.

I liked the location of my first bender so built my new one nearby. I built a new platform using eight ash uprights, an eight foot pine log that I split into four and three fifteen foot two by fours that were reclaimed from the Glastonbury Festival. The floor itself was made from four sterling boards (again provided by Glastonbury). The resulting platform measures 8ft by 16ft which is a fair size for one person but I do plan to expand later.

The covering is two ex-army tarps with a total size of 24ft by 28ft. Still not able to coppice anything other than sycamore, I have not wasted much effort on the framework. I placed three vertical poles along the downhill edge over which I placed the canvas. Then from the inside I inserted six bender poles from the uphill edge. These poles bend over to create a curved rear wall and roof leading to the vertical wall at the downhill end.

Hopefully the photos will make things clearer.

Since then... My original bender was converted into a sauna, then a seasoning shed and now there are plans for it to become a bender for visitors. My new dwelling was rebuilt with a floor extention and a better framework which slowly colapsed during the winter. In the spring I hastily rebuilt the structure as a ridge tent. Blankets provide insulation. I have also installed recycled double glazed windows in the front wall. There is still a need to build an air lock entrance (a porch) that will reduce the loss of warmed air. I've yet to find a way to further insulate the floor.