To mark 40 years of working with wood, these business owners are encouraging their customers to join them in planting trees.

Selwyn and Danielle Holmes opened Dansel Gallery in Abbotsbury 40 years ago in 1979, after three years of working from their small workshop at home in Eype near Bridport.

What started off mainly as a larger workshop for the couple to produce furniture and a range of other decorative and functional pieces, soon attracted many other makers.

The converted building on Rodden Row is now a whole gallery, with five rooms exhibiting a range of high-quality items – from furniture and kitchen equipment to jewellery and children’s games – from more than 200 UK makers.

And to celebrate 40 years of promoting British woodwork and how far Dansel Gallery has come, the team are giving away free tree seeds of the Linden or lime tree Tilia Platyphyllos, a species particularly suited to removing polluting emissions, with every purchase from the shop during August.

The owners have already planted some 2,000 trees in Dorset and are hoping their customers will enjoy the challenge to continue this.

They said: “We saw this quote which is what inspired us, ‘how to erase 100 years of carbon emissions – plant trees, lots of them’.

“In regard to reaching 40 years – we don’t know where the time has gone, we have been privileged to work with wood, which is such a wonderful, unique material.

“We were told in 1979 that selling contemporary woodwork in a 400-year-old building would never work. We are glad we managed to prove them wrong.”

For more Information, visit danselgallery.co.uk or visit the shop on Rodden Row, which is open every day from 10am to 5.30pm, from March to October, and 10am to 5pm from November to February.

Dansel Gallery can also be found on Facebook and Instagram and is encouraging customers to keep them updated with their growing trees by tagging them in photos using @danselgallery.