For more than 50 years a small carpentry workshop on North Shore Road, in Pembroke, has been producing crafted furniture, household items and trinkets.

It has weathered many economic downturns, but in recent years the toll on the business caused by the lean times has been felt more acutely.

Yet at the age of 70, Jeremy Johnson remains hopeful that better times will return.

He has run Jeremy Johnson’s Village Carpentry since 1980, and has worked as a carpenter since he was 16.

It is work that he enjoys and it has sustained him throughout his working life. As a youngster he loved putting things together, whether they were wooden or plastic models, or puzzles.

“I hated walking away from anything that was unfinished. Because of that I decided I’d do something with my hands.”

When he was a teenager he started work at what was then George Trott’s carpentry shop Village Craft.

When he was 22, he branched out on his own. However, many years later, as Mr Trott was preparing to retire he came looking for his former young carpenter and asked if he would like to take over the workshop.

“I felt quite honoured. There were so many people he could have asked, but he asked me. And he made me an offer that I could not refuse,” said Mr Johnson.

Since 1980 he has run the carpentry business, which bears his name.

He and his two fellow carpenters Clarence Lee and Rohan Osbourne, can create items from all types of wood. However, the business specialises in cedar work, for which it is widely known.

Back in 1981 master craftsman Mr Trott and his successor Mr Johnson made two cedar chairs for the Government. The chairs were presented as gifts from the people of Bermuda to Prince Charles and Lady Diana when they were married that summer.

Over the years the workshop has turned out everything from a specially requested tiny trinket box for a child’s first tooth, to bookcases, doors, chairs and full sets of dining room furniture.

Trends have come and gone. The workshop produced cedar handles for shopping bags sold by department stores Trimingham Brothers and Smith’s, but they are no longer in demand. A few of the unused handles, relics of a past era, hang on the wall of Mr Johnson’s workshop office.

The cedar blight that decimated 95 per cent of Bermuda’s cedar forests between 1946 and 1953 had a silver lining, because the dead trees provided a large supply of cedar wood that could be used by woodworkers and carpenters for decades afterwards.

While the supply of cedar is still there, the demand for cedar items is not.

“Young people are not interested in cedar furniture the way that their parents were,” said Mr Johnson.

Most customers at the carpentry shop today are not seeking custom-made pieces, but instead are looking for something ready-made.

“We are still trying to reinvent the business and we are doing more souvenirs and picture frames,” said Mr Johnson.

“We used to throw away offcuts of wood but now we are turning them into trinket items, such as small boxes, ornamental onions, picture frames, cedar bowls, friendship cups and even letter openers.”

Mr Johnson recalls the first economic downturn he experienced after taking over the business. It was in 1984.

“We did not feel anything negative, in fact we picked up business then. But ever since, when there has been a recession we have had problems, and this last one has made us rethink if we should be here or not. It has taken a toll on us.

“The only reason we are fighting through the recession is because of the staff.” said Mr Johnson.

He explained that he wanted to keep his small team employed. One of the carpenters, Mr Lee, has never worked anywhere else since he started at the workshop when he was 16. He is now “going on for 70”, said Mr Johnson.

As tough as things have been, Mr Johnson is optimistic that better times may be ahead. He said: “A lot of people have put a lot of faith in the America’s Cup and we are hoping that does turn things around.

But he added: “Otherwise we are going to be out on the street.”