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The most notable property of ash timber is that it is shock resistant, so can tolerate vibration or movement without splitting apart or cracking as easily as other timbers (willow, for example, is notorious for splitting).  This characteristic of the timber meant it was traditionally used for making the wheel spokes for wagons and the handles of tools such as hammers and axes.

Used for everything from steam trains to sports cars
Ash was also a favoured timber of coachbuilders and when transport became mechanised ash was used first to make the framework for railway carriages and then subsequently lorry cabs and car bodies.  It is a tribute to the qualities of ash that even today, in the 21st Century; the British car manufacturer Morgan still uses ash frames for the bodywork of its classic prestige sports cars – surely the ultimate in recyclable manufacturing.     

So just why was ash furniture, let alone an ash bed, rarely if ever made in the past and what’s changed now?  Because ash had this special property of being useful for cart and tool handle making, perhaps it was just never thought of for furniture manufacture.  Remember that oak had, until the Industrial Revolution at least, been available in sufficient quantities in Britain to supply all demands for furniture.  There would have been little stimulus for anyone to have departed from this traditional allocation of timbers – even to make an ash bed.   

The dawn of ash furniture – and ash beds
Ash is now increasingly popular as a furniture timber thanks, ironically, to the resurrection in popularity of its old ‘rival,’ oak.  Britain’s oak woodlands were seriously depleted by the demands for timber during the First and Second World Wars.  Also, following these conflicts, there was a move away from the heavy, dark oak furniture associated with Victorian Britain towards the lighter, fresh appeal of Scandinavian-style pine furniture.   

It was not until the increased prosperity of the 1980s that people ‘rediscovered’ the quality of oak furniture – especially when finished in the more natural, lighter oak colours.  Supplies of oak to meet this demand did not come from British woodlands but from North America, Asia and the Far East.  Gradually however, even these supplies began struggling to cope with demand.  Other sources of light-coloured hardwood were sought – resulting in the use of ash to make modern furniture such as ash beds.   

Initially some ash furniture was sold as oak in the UK although in fairness this could have been an innocent error rather than a deliberate intention to mislead customers. The ease with which such a mistake could arise can be illustrated by considering the mountain ash or rowan tree.   The leaf pattern of mountain ash is very similar to that of the ash tree.  Both trees are called ash so, if they look the same and have the same name then logic suggests they are both of the same species.  This is a mistake however, as mountain ash is from the Sorbus family and is actually more closely related to apple and hawthorn than it is to ash.