Book Reviews
Book Reviews (9)
Download this review in PDF of Roundwood Timber Framing
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, Size: 55 KbEast Meon in Hampshire provided an appropriate venue to celebrate both building with roundwood timber and the launch of Ben Law’s new book - Roundwood Timber Framing.
East Meon features some of England’s oldest standing timber-framed buildings some of which have provided continuous domestic accommodation since the early 14th century.
Author and roundwood timber-framer Ben Law invited the Duchess of Norfolk to cut the ceremonial ivy garland ribbon to declare the new Sustainability Centre Woodland Classroom building open. This roundwood building stands in a woodland setting and Lawson Cypress timbers cut from that woodland were employed by Ben Law to construct the classroom building.
The book provides a highly illustrated insight into Ben’s development and promotion of the concept of building using roundwood timber i.e. tree trunks that have neither been hewn or sawn. Apparently this results in timbers being up to 50% stronger in service since none of the fibres of the wood have been cut by a timber conversion process.
As the owner of a woodland that has blocks of Larch, Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedar (all of which were planted by Kenneth Rankin founder of the Economic Forestry Group) I find myself keen to examine any application that will potentially allow me to fell and employ these trees in a manner that both respects and takes full advantage of the properties of those trees and this appears to be Ben’s earnest aim.
The book is not a standard “how to self build” reference book. Instead, Ben has selected and drawn many photographic examples from his growing catalogue of completed roundwood building commissions that include woodland based houses, barns, shops & now a classroom !
As a Chartered Engineer with a Master’s degree in timber building conservation I find myself questioning some of the practices illustrated in the book but apparently that is no bad thing. One of Ben’s declared aims is to draw architects and engineers into discussion in order to help formulate an acceptable roundwood building recipe or code of practice that will help obviate the need and cost incurred by roundwood builders in having to employ professional input into the design, construction, testing and inspection of roundwood buildings. I’m in!
The book is published by Permanent Publications (ISBN 978-1-85623-041-4) and is priced at £19.99 in hardback form [162 colour pages - 215 x 250] and is well worth the investment.
Ken Hume B.Sc. M.Sc. P.Eng. C.Eng. M.I.Mech.E.
September 2010
Download PDF review of Wytham Woods Oxford's Ecological Laboratory, Size: 45.35 Kb
, Size: 45.35 KbWoodland Owners, Managers, Environmental Conservators and Naturalists will be delighted to discover that Oxford University Press has recently published a book on Wytham Woods written by Oxford University staff and other associated researchers. The contents of this book have been nearly 70 years in the making since the 1000 acre woods were gifted to Oxford University by Raymond ffennel in 1942. It charts the history of the woods, the researchers, changes in management policy and the known outcomes from various research programmes that have been undertaken in the woods on trees, mammals, birds, insects and other associated life forms.
I was excited at the prospect of learning from a reliable, evidence-based source about the outcomes that have stemmed from the adoption of various woodland management practices.
The book is written clearly by various contributors and has been ably edited to provide an easy read with an excellent and extensive reference section provided to help the enthusiastic reader delve even deeper into published research outcomes. The book provides much in the way of “joined up” thinking about the behaviour, interaction and dependency that exists between the various life forms to be found in the woods.
I made contact with editor Peter Savill and co-author Nigel Fisher to arrange a visit to Wytham Woods in order that I might see first hand the subject matter of the book. The University freely grants and issues permits to bona fide researchers and the public alike to visit the woods with very little restriction other than respecting the requirements of ongoing research taking place in the woodland.
The book is published by OUP priced at £55.00 in hardback form [263 pages - 250 x 170]. Students and those persons operating on a limited budget will be pleased to discover that the book should also be published in paperback in early 2011 hopefully at a much reduced price. This book is liable to run to many reprints with updated editions anticipated over the years and is likely to become recommended reading for various forestry and environmental conservation courses.
Ken Hume
August 2010
This book is the first new book about the making and design of Windsor chairs for over 10 years. It has been written with a broad readership in mind. It is aimed both at existing Windsor chairmakers and also at those who are perhaps contemplating making their first chair.
Detailed plans are included for two English and two American chairs. It is also aimed at those who are interested in both English and American Windsor chairs – dealing with them together throughout the book for the first time.
Those who wish to make chairs in the same way that they were made in the 18th century will find chapter 7 particularly interesting, as it discusses the lessons to be learned from the toolmarks left by an English maker on a chair dating from around 1750. Finally chapter 8 covers design and looks at the subtle messages that can be sent out by a chair which can be interpreted in the same way as human body language.
The book had 192 pages and is filled with colour photographs and line drawings throughout.
Biographical details: James Mursell
Age 52. James graduated from Cambridge with a degree in botany and having obtained an MBA worked in industry for a number of years including 2 years in New York. He then took over a family fruit growing business and ran it for 15 years before closing that down to concentrate full time on Windsor chairmaking.
He has been making chairs professionally since 2001. In 2004 he was asked by West Dean College to take over Windsor chairmaking courses from the late Jack Hill and he now teaches there 2 – 3 times a year. Enjoying the teaching so much, he converted a barn on his farm into a dedicated teaching workshop which can accommodate up to 6 students. He runs 1520 classes per year. His students come from as far as New Zealand and Australia, and range in age from 20 to 85.
Being unable to purchase the tools that he needed for his craft, he has developed a range of spokeshaves and travishers which he makes and sells to chairmakers and other woodworkers around the world. When he is not teaching and making tools he makes chairs to commission using locally sourced English hardwoods from the nearby Cowdray Estate. His passion is for early English and American Windsor chairs which were made by individual craftsmen and which show the true elegance that is possible in these chairs.
James is a member of Woodland Heritage and the Sussex Guild. He exhibits and demonstrates in Sussex and around the country.
Signed copies are available for £19.95 (plus £2.75 p&p) direct from the author.
James Mursell, The Windsor Workshop Tel: 01798 915 925
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Website:
www.thewindsorworkshop.co.uk
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Website:
www.thewindsorworkshop.co.uk
Book Review
"The Art of Ian Norbury"
Foreword by Simon Channing-Williams
Ian Norbury was introduced to me when I was looking for someone to do some carvings of birds for a film I was producing. We had a thoroughly enjoyable meeting, shared a glass or two of wine and Ian lit a pipe. It’s been like that now for almost 20 years, the only deviation seems to be good food and strong coffee !
Ian of course turned down my offer of work; he was too busy…, an exhibition was planned…, he needed to travel… The truth was simply that if he had accepted he would have had to compromise, do someone else’s bidding, be a hired hand, and that is not what Ian Norbury is about.
Over the years I have commissioned two pieces from Ian and am the lucky owner of a number more, and I know that Ian has to be given the freedom to explore in order to deliver a creation in an organic way. He has a voracious appetite for ideas, he’s a great listener, a formidable raconteur, but you can’t buy him; feed him information and detail and the result will inevitably excite and inspire.
Ian is of course technically brilliant, but ‘technical’ in terms of art and creation can sometimes be boring, and that he is not. He is an artist of our time; drawing on the past, but creating and delivering work both for and of the present, as well as the future, in a totally uncompromising way. He is able to combine the eye of a cartoonist with the mind of a sharp political commentator.
Like all great artists, Ian invites us to look beyond what we actually see, urging us to open our eyes.To really look, perhaps even to glimpse beyond his own horizons.
Unsurprisingly, Ian Norbury is a complex man – idiosyncratic, charismatic, iconoclastic – a great debunker of pomp, and wonderfully politically incorrect. He is a powerful presence and at times perhaps satanic. He is also a passionate and caring man, a man of passion. He has the delicate and sensual hands of a trusted lover who encourages us to expose his subjects further. His eye is truthful, he sees the beauty but he also sees the pain and doubt; that same unerring eye also reminds us of our responsibilities to this earth and of our own mortality.
It is no wonder to me that Ian Norbury should work with wood, a raw material that is so tactile, warm and sensual. It can also be hard and unforgiving, but with Ian this is a true union of man and material, the one complementing the other to the greatest possible effect.
This book reflects that unity, that unique brilliance.
The Art of Ian Norbury: Sculptures in Wood
Author: Ian Norbury
Publisher: Fox Chapel Publishing
Publication Date: 28 Sept 2004
ISBN 1565232224 – ISBN –13 9781565232228
160 pages
| Harlequin, The Fortune Teller, is reading his own fortune in the Tarot, and has selected four cards. He is looking anxiously at his first card which is the Fool, a reflection of himself, and the most mysterious, enthralling and disturbing card in the pack. This figure is made of Limewood, inlaid with 78 different types of wood, representing the 78 cards of the Tarot. The Walnut base is painted on the four sides with more cards from the Marseilles Tarot, the most traditional pack, full of medieval iconography and Christian symbolism. Height 44 inches (112cm). For full colour superb illustrations see www.iannorbury.com |
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Dr Tim Cutler reviews our choice of book
- and tells us about his beloved Physic Garden
- and tells us about his beloved Physic Garden
In 1996 Thomas Pakenham enthralled us with his "Meetings with Remarkable Trees". This was a new kind of book which owed little to conventional botany. The criteria for selection and inclusion of the trees were size, age and personality, and he selected 60 magnificent specimens, all with a story to tell, photographed by himself in wonderful settings in the UK and Ireland.
This time, in "Remarkable Trees of the World" the theme continues, but on a global scale! If you have not been lucky enough to have been given this beautiful book for Christmas I do urge you to go out and buy one immediately.
In this book of 190 pages, richly illustrated with photographs of breathtaking quality, Mr Pakenham shows us another 60 carefully selected trees from round the globe. His inspiration for this new volume came from two sources: firstly, the sight of the huge Pagoda tree (Sophora japonica) which dominates the main street in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, an island off north east USA, and secondly a trip to the Kruger National Park in South Africa, where he clearly developed a love affair with the giant Baobabs (Adansonia). Indeed, many pages are devoted to these weird giants which range from Botswana to Australia, and especially the magnificent Avenue of the Baobabs at Morondava, Madagascar. The final photograph in the book of these trees at sunset is unforgettable.
This really is a wonderful selection of trees to delight us all. It includes the oldest living trees on earth - the bristlecone pines of California (Pinus longaeva), magnificent camphor trees in South Africa (Cinnamomum camphora), a spectacular Magnolia grandiflora in an equally spectacular courtyard in Padua, venerable olives in Turkey, huge mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) in Australia, and so many more. What pleasure he must have had in tracking down these specimens and in photographing them so well.
This book is such a delight to pick up and browse through at random. It provides an instant escape from the gloom of the world’s current problems and is the next best thing to actually hugging the tree yourself. I do hope we will not have to wait too long for "Even More Remarkable Trees of the World" and trust Mr Pakenham is on the trail of the next 60 trees even now.
Remarkable Trees of the World by Thomas Pakenham is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Price £25.00. ISBN 0-297-84300-1
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A Garden for Tree Lovers in London |
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The Chelsea Physic Garden was founded by the Society of Apothecaries in 1673. Pisa University had opened the first physic garden in Europe in 1543, and in 1621 the first one in Britain was founded in Oxford. Physic gardens were essentially training grounds for physicians and apothecaries, as plants were the major source of medicines (and many still are), and these gardens provided a protected environment where the plants could be grown and instruction in their use could take place. In time, most of these gardens have come to be known as "Botanic" gardens and only Chelsea, with its strong tradition of medicinal teaching and research, has retained its original title.
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The centre of the Garden is overlooked by the magnificent statue of Sir Hans Sloane (the prime benefactor of the Garden) by Michael Rysbrack, which was erected in 1733. |
The Society of Apothecaries chose their site of 3.5 acres (2 hectares) in a riverside village which already had notable gardens and orchards surrounding the great houses that had belonged to Henry VIII, Sir Thomas More, Sir John Danvers and other prominent men. We have to visualise Chelsea then without Wren’s Royal Hospital, without the Kings Road as a public highway, and as a place only safely and conveniently accessible by river. This certainly influenced the choice of site for the Garden, with steps at its southern gate approached by boat. No doubt the inherent qualities of the site - its free draining soil, its shallow south facing slope - also played their part. If the spread of London has today engulfed this once rural setting, and left it a trapped "green island" in a sea of buildings, these buildings themselves provide added protection, radiating heat in winter and keeping out chilling winds, so creating a micro-climate which enables rare and tender plants to thrive.
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The 1751 garden layout. |
The south-west quadrant contains the newly refurbished cool fernery, which contains many rare and endangered species of ferns, and a nearby a large collection of grasses and bamboos. Important trees in this area include the Chinese persimmon (Diospyrus kaki), two maidenhair trees (Gingko biloba) - the tallest in the Garden, the Chusan palm (Trachycarpus fortunei), the paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), with common and black Walnuts and many more.
In the south-east quarter stands a fine Yew, and other trees of interest in the quarter are the Kentucky Coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioica), the Date Plum (Diospyros lotus), the Handkerchief tree (Davidia involucrata) and a fine Swamp Cypress beside the pond.
In total, the Garden can boast over 130 trees, so I have only listed a few of the vast selection that the visitor can admire and study.
The Garden is well worth a visit, whether one is interested in medicinal plants or trees. There are helpful printed guidebooks available, and knowledgeable guides run Garden tours, when the Garden is open to the public on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons from April to October.
For more details, phone 0207 352 5646 or write for membership information to: Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, London SW3 4HS or visit the web site: www.chelseaphysicgarden.com |
The Red Squirrel
Redressing The Wrong
By Charles Dutton MICFor
Redressing The Wrong
By Charles Dutton MICFor
The red squirrel was once common in all wooded areas of Britain and Ireland. I can recall a time when seeing them
scurrying among the trees on my farm in Co Meath was an almost everyday occurrence. It is now however fifteen years
since I last sighted one.
In an astonishingly short space of time the red has become an endangered species while the North American import, the bigger and stronger grey, has taken over more and more of the red’s natural habitat.
When the grey first became a common sight, people were fascinated by its boldness, agility and adaptability and whole TV wildlife programmes were devoted to admiring the ability of this pest to raid bird feeders and avail of unusual feeding opportunities.
Sadly, the public were, and to a large extent still are, unaware of the steady disappearance of our native red squirrel as the grey pushes it further and further towards extinction. The European Squirrel Initiative or ESI have already produced two excellent publications highlighting the dramatic spread of the alien grey throughout Britain and Ireland and the threat this pest poses to our woodland resource.
With this new publication "The Red Squirrel, Redressing The Wrong", they demonstrate effectively just how serious the situation is and what must be done to protect our remaining pockets of woodland where the red still survives.
Research has shown that if the current situation continues the red squirrel will be extinct in Britain and Ireland within 20 years. This is a major conservation issue and Charles Dutton has done an excellent job in presenting the facts clearly and comprehensively with attractive pictures, illustrations and charts allowing for easy assimilation of the information.
In the introduction the reader is asked the question "What do you feel when you see a red squirrel running about in the tree canopy? Perhaps a sense that one’s daily life has been enriched and that the forest is in balance and in good heart."
Keeping our forests in balance and rich in bio-diversity is perhaps what concerns us most and this book illustrates, in well researched detail, the rather stark choices facing us. If we do not act quickly, then our native red squirrel will soon be a memory relived only through the pages of Beatrix Potter’s "Tales of Squirrel Nutkin".
The book begins with details of the red squirrel’s distribution throughout Europe. Maps illustrating the distribution of the red in both 1940 and 2002 show an alarming loss of territory with the 2002 map demonstrating how the grey squirrel has overrun most of England and Wales in the intervening period.
The advance of the grey has not just affected red squirrel populations; since Cecil Rhodes introduced the grey to South Africa, it has been responsible for environmental disruption and the University of Natal has recorded songbird losses of up to 40%.
Current conservation projects throughout Britain are detailed including data from the Isle of Wight, which is the only large area in England totally protected from natural invasion by grey squirrels. Clocaenog forest is a large Sitka spruce forest and probably contains the largest remaining population of red squirrels in Wales, however these are now stated to be at risk as greys have entered the forest. Road edges had been planted with beech for landscape and amenity purposes but were then removed as they were providing access corridors for the greys. Based on this kind of experience, recommendations are made for woodland management and planting to further assist the survival of our remaining reds.
The final chapters then deal with means of assisting re-colonisation and the creation of red squirrel reserves. These also contain essential information on means of reintroducing the red and its further management and aftercare.
Once the red has been driven out of an area of woodland, the costs of reintroduction are high and it is suggested that great savings could be made if local conservation groups could be used to help or even run sites.
"The Red Squirrel, Redressing The Wrong" is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of this attractive and endearing native mammal. We need to create far greater public awareness if we are to seriously address the problem and this can only be achieved by first bringing the plight of the red to the public’s attention.
This book does just that. Hopefully our decision makers in government throughout Europe will take note and act before it is too late.
Published by the European Squirrel Initiative. ISBN No. 0-9547576-0-3.
Joe Barry farms in Co Meath, Ireland
He also writes for a number of publications on forestry and environmental issues.
MAKING THE GRADE
A guide to appearance grading UK grown hardwood timber
Authors: Ivor Davies & Guy Watt
I am proud to be part of the UK forest industry. Sitting on my desk is the new hardwood appearance-grading guide, which compares more than favourably with the equivalent French and American guides and considering the size of their resource it really is a major achievement.
It seems years since Ivor Davies and Guy Watt shared some of their research on this project and I know there have been difficulties on the way. Congratulations on seeing it through to publication and well done to the eight supporting organisations, I am only sorry not to see the UK Forest Products Association on the list.
The guide starts with a simple introduction followed by an explanation in table form of the appearance grading system used under the heading ‘Grading Criteria’. This is where attempts at grading in the past have so often failed, to understand what all the different features in hardwood look like – you really need to see them and feel them if you like. They have tried to get over the complex variety of features by creating ‘Optional Sub-grades’ and then there is a long list of notes to help you understand each feature. All this leaves us with a grading system that still requires interpretation between specifier and user/buyer.
To me the greatest strength of this grading guide is in the colour photographic example of each grade by species. Over the years there have been many attempts at this, but the printed examples in this guide are outstanding. The way they have brought in the special features in Oak is an example of the care taken. These features are so important for the market place today.
There are five very useful appendices –
- The comparison with European and British standards
- Measurement of sawn hardwood timber, including permitted tolerances and a guide to wastage factors
- An extensive glossary which includes diagrams of the types of log conversion, tables on movement characteristics and a durability classification
- Two tables setting out the properties and uses of UK hardwoods
- Last, but by no means least, a Specifiers and Buyers check list.
The guide concludes with a set of references, a bibliography and a source of further information.
With the decline of hardwood saw milling in the UK there has been a considerable loss of knowledge and skill in the whole realm of hardwood conversion and drying. The new small-scale producers, many of them coming into business through the support of woodland initiatives, will find this guide invaluable.
This guide should be in every architect’s and interior designer’s library and on the desk of every UK hardwood producer.
Copies of this guide are available free of charge from: Forestry Commission Publications Tel: 0870 121 4180. It is also available as a PDF file which can be downloaded from: www.forestry.gov.uk/hardwoods
Review by Roger G Venables
Elm table with spalted timber used for the drawer front (Woodschool Ltd)
Book Review by Peter Savill
CHAMPION TREES OF BRITAIN & IRELAND
Owen Johnson (editor). Champion trees of Britain and Ireland. Whittet Books Ltd, Hill Farm, Stonham Rd, Cotton, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 4RQ. 2003. Pp 192. 30 x21 cm. ISBN 1-873580-61-4. Price £25, or £17.50 (excluding postage) to Woodland Heritage members.
This book lists historic, large, rare and remarkable trees growing in Britain and Ireland. It is published by the Tree Register, a charity that maintains a database of such trees. Information is provided on 3500 ‘champions’ of 2020 different species or varieties. It is considerably more ambitious than its predecessor, the 1994 booklet Champion Trees in the British Isles, published by the Tree Register in association with the Forestry Commission. It has a short introduction by the renowned tree photographer Thomas Pakenham, who provides a history of the recording of ‘prodigious’ trees. This started with John Evelyn in his famous Sylva of 1664, followed by the publications of Loudon in 1838 and Elwes and Henry from 1906-1913. This new book originated from the records compiled by the late Alan Mitchell, though they have been greatly amplified since his death in 1995. It shows well that many hundreds of species and thousands of varieties of trees grow marvellously well in Britain and Ireland.
Almost half of the book is a directory, ordered alphabetically by scientific names of the species and varieties covered, 98% of which are non-native. Information is provided on origins, date of first cultivation in Britain or Ireland, frequency, and details of the champion trees recorded, including their locations, heights and diameters. The other main part is the Gazetteer which lists locations, by county, and then alphabetically by site. Where necessary, Ordnance Survey grid references are provided. The book also has good indexes, a glossary, a bibliography, 84 colour photographs and text boxes that provide additional information about some genera.
Douglas firs are the tallest trees in Scotland (62 m), Wales (61.5 m), England (57 m) and the Republic of Ireland (56.5 m). In Northern Ireland the tallest is a 57 m Sitka spruce. The rarest is an 11.5 m tall Ley’s Whitebeam (Sorbus leyana) in the Taff Valley in Wales. Only 16 wild examples of this species are known, all in the same valley.
The book will be invaluable to anyone who enjoys finding and looking at impressive trees. Unfortunately its dimensions, at 30 x 21 cm, make it a little unwieldy to carry around in the field. A handier pocket- or at least rucksack-sized edition would have been easier to use. Nevertheless, for tree enthusiasts, it is an indispensable reference book.
Peter Savill
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