A living legacy of craft, ecology and community.
Welcome to the home of the Tim Stead Trust whose mission is to care for The Steading and Tim Stead’s legacy; to support learning, making and environmental inquiry; and to collaborate with communities and cultural partners in Scotland and beyond to expand creative and ecological understanding.
Tim Stead
Tim Stead’s work is held in public collections and displayed in museums and galleries across Scotland, recognising its national significance within the fields of craft, design and visual art.
AN EXTRAORDINARY HOME
The Steading
While Tim Stead’s work is found across Scotland, The Steading remains the anchor point of his legacy.
It is the only place where his ideas, making, writing and living environment come together as a complete work. Today, The Steading is a Category A listed building of national significance, recognised as one of the most important examples of late-twentieth-century polymath environments in Scotland.
Wooplaw
Tim Stead’s impact is not only visible in objects, but in landscapes.
He was instrumental in the creation of Wooplaw Community Woodland, widely recognised as the first community woodland in Britain.
A working house & workshop
Tim Stead believed that making was inseparable from living, and our approach reflects this ethos: The Steading is cared for as a working environment, not a sealed historic interior.
Onsite today David Lightly runs Tim Stead's former workshop as The Woodneuk.
BUILDING ON THE LEGACY
The Tim Stead Trust
The Tim Stead Trust cares for The Steading as a living place that balances conservation with use, care with creativity. From here, the Trust connects outward to collections, landscapes, communities and contemporary practice ensuring that Tim Stead’s contribution to Scotland’s cultural life is understood not as a moment in the past, but as an ongoing influence.
Why Your Support Matters Now
The Trust is entering a crucial phase of development, including the creation of new public spaces such as an onsite Stewardship programme for apprenticeships and an accessible gallery space within the wider five-year plan to secure the future of The Steading.
Your support helps ensure this work is done carefully, ethically and for public benefit.
CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION
The Tim Stead Trust is actively exploring ways to better connect and interpret Tim Stead’s work across Scotland through research, partnerships, digital mapping, learning programmes and future exhibitions.
If you encounter Tim Stead’s work elsewhere in Scotland, we would love to hear from you.
Projects
-
![]()
Nichola Fletcher - Saving The Steading
