In this area we will have details of our forthcoming events and courses, and reviews and photographs from our recent activities.

Prickly Nut Wood, July 2008

In July 2008 35 SWA members visited Prickly Nut Wood in West Sussex, home of Ben Law, whose house was featured in the Channel 4 programme Grand Designs.  The visit focused on his woodland and its management, rather than the house, and Ben took us through the management of his (mainly sweet chestnut coppice) woodland and the portfolio of activities from mushrooms to roundwood building that constitutes his woodland enterprise.  The event was oversubscribed so we will be arranging a repeat event in 2010.  For photos of the event click here.

Wilderness Wood, East Sussex, November 2008

Adding value and marketing -

A the end of November 25 SWA members braved the frost and fog to visit the woodland run by SWA members Anne and Chris Yarrow.  Over the last 25 years they have developed a very successful woodland enterprise which now turns over close to £300k and employs six full time staff. The woodland covers 30ha, mostly sweet chestnut coppice, and they manufacture and sell from the site a wide range of garden furniture, fencing and other items made primarily from the chestnut. They also sell firewood, and chestnut poles of various sizes for those who wish to make their own pergolas or other items. Chris Yarrow (one of the owners) who led the visit, was a mine of information on marketing and pricing. 

A large slice of their income comes from visitors and recreation. They have a busy tea room and gift shop, and their children’s birthday party package (shelter making and a barbeque) is very popular.  These non-traditional woodland activities might not be for everyone, but their success demonstrates that by diversifying and being flexible it is possible for a woodland to pay its way and provide a living.
Their harvesting is very organised, and a number of their products are designed to use odd sections of timber that otherwise would go to waste.  Their marketing is helped by the clear and very accessible way in which they label and stack their poles and other products making it very easy for visitors to select items.

 I certainly picked up a number of ideas - for example they sell logs by the filled bag but also customers can fill their own, for a discount - a considerable saving in time and labour. A number of members looked rather enviously at their new custom built Land Rover with a tipping body, used to transport logs from the site to the sales area. In all a thought-provoking visit. Many thanks to Chris for hosting the event.

35 hardy SWA members braved hail and heavy rain on a visit to Hatfield Forest, Hertfordshire.  The site is Britain’s most complete surviving example of a medieval Forest, and has been managed by the National Trust for over 70 years.  The property is a 400ha patchwork of mainly hazel coppice and open wood pasture with over 900 veteran pollards of eight tree species.

In the morning National Trust site manager Adrian Turner led the group on a tour focussed on the management of the coppice.  The valuable heritage of the site and the desire to continue its management history has resulted in practices that would not be normally considered best practice in coppice management elsewhere.  Out of the 210ha of coppice on the site, about 70 hectares is managed as minimum intervention, and about 70ha is under active management.  The Trust cut about 2ha a year, giving a rotation of 35 years.  Before cutting a coupe they stock fence the area, as the whole forest is grazed by cattle.  Stool spacing is much less dense than is usual (5m or wider) and the ground is covered with grass, with a less diverse ground flora than is common in managed coppice because of the grazing.  Individual stools are protected with ‘stockades’ created from the cut hazel to protect against deer browsing.  The stock fencing is removed after five years to allow the cattle back in to the coupe.  The cut timber is sold to the local community as firewood after two years seasoning.  The coppice management is carried out entirely by a group of 26 volunteers, some of whom have been involved continuously since the start of the group in 1976.

After lunch Ted Green focused on the management of the pollards.  The site has a unique collection of veteran pollards, and each has been separately surveyed and has its own management plan.  The Trust are creating new pollards, but to attempt to fill the gap in the age profile created because no new pollards were cut for several hundred years they are deliberately damaging younger trees to create new habitat for fungi and invertebrates.

In all, an interesting day in a woodland where preservation of site heritage and continuation of past management history and practices are priorities for the managers.

Northfield Wood, Petersfield, Hants, April 2009

On 26^th April, 31 SWA members visited Chuck Dandridge’s woodland, Northfield Wood, near Petersfield, Hampshire.  It was a gloriously sunny spring day, just the time to be out in the woods.  The visit was led by Chuck and a consultant who is preparing a management plan for the woodland.  The woodland covers 8ha, and consists of predominantly oak and ash over neglected hazel coppice.  Access within the woodland is confined to footpaths.  Chuck bought the wood in 1993 and since then has taken firewood for his own use, felled some standards and planted some hazel in the gaps created.  He has recently improved the access by creating some hardstanding, and the management plan which will form the basis of an application to the EWGS will include a surfaced access track, felling standards in some areas where the density of hazel is still high to restore the coppice and thinning other areas to favour the better oaks.

The woodland is crossed by the Hanger Way, a well used waymarked tourist footpath, which has led to people straying into the woodland, and there was some useful discussion on ways to minimise the impact of this.

Toni Brannon, of the SWA’s Coppice Restoration Project, gave a brief introduction to the project, which aims to match coppice workers with potentially productive coppice woodlands.

Hatfield Forest, March 2009