Profiles
Profiles (13)
Why I became a Woodland Heritage Trustee
Gabriel Hemery
Woodland Heritage’s unique breadth of interest in science, innovation
and practise, and its ability to bridge the always mystifying divide
between growers and end-users, has always been inspiring to me.
At the start of my career in the early 1990s, Woodland Heritage provided professional personal support of incalculable value, as I worked in the small and under-funded field of private sector forestry research. They supported many of my early Walnut silviculture and genetic trials, and enabled me to travel to centres of hardwood excellence in Italy and the USA.
I repaid this debt by publishing my work in their journal and in the peer-reviewed press, so important for scientists, always ensuring the generous support of WH was acknowledged. I also co-authored Woodland Hertiage’s pruning leaflets. In my role as Secretary of the British & Irish Hardwoods Improvement Programme (2001-04), I fully realised how crucial the financial support of WH was in underpinning their important work.
When I was approached at the end of 2004 and asked if I would consider being a trustee, I was flattered and honoured. Since my appointment as Trustee in 2005, I have been pleased to be able repay some of my personal debt to Woodland Heritage, and to help support many of its innovative activities. Forestry is at an important juncture in a political sense, and unparalleled new opportunities are emerging for the sector. I hope to help steer WH along a dynamic path whilst keeping it true to its roots. Finally, Woodland Heritage is also about people, and I cannot say how fortunate we are to embrace such a knowledgeable membership from such a wide cross-section of interests. Woodland Heritage field days are ‘par excellence’.
A celebration of British forestry
– marking the retirement of Peter Savill
By Gabriel Hemery, Jo Clark and Peter Kanowski
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| Gabriel Hemery (left) introduces Peter Savill to the assembled group. |
Peter “retired” in September 2006 after a professional career of 44 years – the first four of which were spent in Africa, the next 14 in Northern Ireland, and the last 26 at Oxford. With characteristic Savillian modesty, Peter eschewed suggestions of any retirement event beyond that organised by Oxford’s Department of Plant Sciences for its staff and students. Undeterred, a small group of Oxford-based colleagues conspired, in collusion with Peter’s wife Michelle, to organise a surprise event to allow a much greater cast of colleagues and former students to celebrate his professional achievements. Over 100 attended the event, christened ‘A celebration of British forestry’. The breadth of Peter’s work and influence was recognised by the wide array of guests from the UK and overseas – spanning forestry education, policy, research, silviculture and furniture making – and a correspondingly broader discussion about the achievements of and opportunities for British forestry, rather than the usual debate about poor markets, grey squirrels, and storm damage!
| Peter Savill's Career |
Peter’s career began in 1962 with a four year stint as Assistant Conservator of Forests in Sierra Leone, undertaking research, management and inventories of rainforest. In 1966, he took up the post of Forest Officer in the Northern Ireland Forest Service, where he served for 14 years, spanning forestry’s major afforestation phase. He had responsibility for most aspects of silvicultural research – primarily on Sitka Spruce and Lodgepole Pine, conducting trials involving nutrition, spacing, thinning, provenance, weeding/herbicides, ground preparation and problems of crop stability. This period established the foundations of Peter’s work in temperate silviculture, which diversified and blossomed in the next phase of his career.
Peter took up the Lectureship in Silviculture at Oxford University’s Forestry Institute (OFI) in 1980. His responsibilities included teaching undergraduates in various guises, initially in Agriculture and Forest Sciences and subsequently in the Biology component of the BA, and graduates in OFI’s flagship M.Sc. course in Forestry and its Relation to Land Use, which he also directed for a period in the 1980s.
The University Lectureship allowed Peter to broaden his research beyond temperate plantation forests and he progressively developed a research programme and the coterie of research students addressing some of the many challenges and opportunities in growing and managing British broadleaved woodlands. The associated Fellowship at Linacre College, where he eventually became (amongst other roles) Senior Tutor, provided a base to engage with a much wider range of Oxford students, as well as the many forestry M.Sc. and D.Phils who gravitated to Linacre under the Savill mantle. During his university career, Peter supervised an astonishing 25 D.Phil. students and over 50 M.Sc. students, as well as teaching hundreds more.
The research which Peter has led over the past few decades on British semi-natural broadleaved woodlands has been of fundamental importance to contemporary British forest policy and management, and in generating knowledge of particular species – notably Ash, Beech, Oak, and Walnut. Peter’s work crossed the traditional silviculture/genetics divide; he has been centrally involved in genetic improvement of British hardwoods for the past 15 years, and currently chairs the British & Irish Hardwoods Improvement Programme (BIHIP).
Peter has been – and remains – a prolific author, writing four books, two book chapters, 11 single author publications and 55 joint publications – and still counting. There are many important works amongst these, including Peter’s 1991 book ‘The silviculture of trees used in British forestry’, which continues to be a popular and important resource for British students and foresters, and his 1986 joint work with Julian Evans, ‘Plantation forestry in temperate regions’, which remains an authoritative text. Peter’s work also extended internationally, both in collaboration with European colleagues in silviculture and genetic resources of temperate hardwoods, and through the supervision of student projects as diverse as Douglas Fir yield modelling in Portugal and the ecology of Khaya anthotheca in Mozambique. His experience as a consultant in various African and Asian countries probably helped him to address some of the institutional and practical challenges he has faced – more recently in undertaking seed collection of Walnut in central Asia.
Many others know Peter through his professional roles, as a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters, one of its Council members between 1982 and 1987, as convenor of the Institute’s Part 1 Examinations Board, 1991-94, and as co-editor of its journal Forestry between 1995-2002. Peter also served the Government in a variety of roles, including as a member of the Forestry Commission’s Advisory Committee on Forest Research from 1996.
| A Celebration of British Forestry |
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| Peter Savill speaks about the Ash trial plot. |
Peter has been closely involved in almost all aspects of this research. The field day programme took participants on a pre-lunch ramble through the series of trials established over the previous 13 years, beginning with the UK’s first “Breeding Seedling Orchard” of Ash, Fraxinus excelsior, one of four across England. Peter explained the stand’s origins and management, and how it was about to be “rogued” (thinned on the basis of genetic quality), to become the first source of quality-assured Ash seed for Britain.
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| Jason Hubert (with family strapped in) holds forth! |
Gabriel also described Peter’s subsequent research with the Northmoor Trust in Walnut research, including ground-breaking work on provenance variation and silviculture, in both establishment and mixed silvicultural techniques arising from a BIHIP study tour of Italy. There was strong interest amongst participants in the trial assessing the use of nurse tree and shrub species in Walnut growing; these results are about to be reported in another of Peter’s many co-authored publications.
Participants’ odyssey through Paradise Wood’s suite of contemporary British broadleaved research continued with Jo Clark, the Northmoor Trust’s Forestry Research Manager, explaining research on Ash and Beech provenance selection. The demonstrably poor performance of Romanian sourced Ash compared to more locally-adapted sources from France and Yorkshire provided a salutary lesson for British forestry, which relied on Eastern European sources of Ash and other ‘native’ species early in the farm woodland afforestation period.
These issues led to discussion of implications of climate change for British broadleaves, a topic which Jo Clark is exploring in part in her doctoral research. The field programme concluded with discussions led by two of Peter’s other collaborators, the Northmoor Trust’s Director of Land Operations Tom Curtis, and Natural England’s Keith Kirby, on the role of trees and woods in the landscape. These discussions and the field tour were brought to a timely and appropriate finale by a lunchtime thunderstorm, with emphatic thunderclaps and a deluge sufficient to remind Peter of his time in Sierra Leone!
| A Good Send Off |
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| Peter proudly shows his WH massive Elm wassail bowl. |
These informal reminiscences were followed by a suite of speeches from former colleagues and students: Professor Peter Kanowski (Head of Forestry, Australian National University), Dr Simon Pryor (Environment & Conservation Advisor with Forestry Commission England), Peter Goodwin (Director of Titchmarsh & Goodwin, and Chairman of Woodland Heritage), and Sir Martin Wood (Patron, Northmoor Trust).
Peter Goodwin presented Peter Savill with a huge hand-turned wassail bowl, a traditional vessel for serving wassail, a type of hot punch. Dr Nick Brown (Lecturer in Plant Sciences, Oxford University) proposed a concluding champagne toast and presented Peter with a gift from all those present, a (commissioned, and to be completed) landscape painting of the Oxfordshire landscape around the Wittenhams.
Peter responded with his characteristic modesty and understatement, reflecting on the satisfaction his work with so many others – including, but not limited to, those present – had given him, and explaining his plans to continue working actively in forestry, both in some aspects of the research we had been discussing in the field, and – amongst other roles – as a trustee for both the Northmoor Trust and Woodland Heritage.
Peter concluded with a sentiment that many others expressed privately – that events such as this, at which so many forestry friends gathered, were all too rare, and that – while he was glad to provide the excuse for such a gathering on this occasion – “we should do this more often”!
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Our sincere thanks to Gabriel and Jo’s organising co-conspirators, David Boshier and Nick Brown (both Plant Sciences, Oxford University), Tom Curtis (Northmoor Trust), and Michelle Taylor; and to Sir Martin and Lady Audrey Wood, and the Northmoor Trust, for hosting the celebration. |
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Oxford Dear Peter, Lewis and other Trustees, I was overwhelmed, delighted (and a bit embarrassed) by the marvellous surprise retirement day event arranged at Little Wittenham last Saturday.You played your parts in keeping it secret very effectively ! I found it very moving that so many of you were prepared to give up a Saturday and travel so far to be there. The Elm Wassail bowl that you all so generously contributed to and signed, and which Peter presented with such humour on everyone’s behalf will be a permanent, attractive and memorable reminder to Michelle and me of the day.Thank you all so much. The fact that I have now retired from Oxford University, does not mean that I am stepping down from other interests as well – rather the reverse. I now expect to have more time to contribute as a Trustee of Woodland Heritage, and look forward to doing this. With good wishes and very many thanks. Peter Savill |
James Blewitt M.B.E.
An Appreciation
An Appreciation
With the passing of James in July, I now feel able to spread the word about our late patron’s remarkable tree growing and experiments so that others can learn from his work. If he were still alive, James would have been unwilling to publish his views because he always reckoned it would take 30 years to prove his theories. In 1947, James took over the family farm set in the beautiful Stour valley, with his cousin by marriage. James (34) looked after the woods, hedges and ditches, whilst his partner did all the practical farm management.
I was first introduced to James in 1975 by George Green who had worked with James on his willow plantations for many years and which numbered 1,600 trees by then. The owner confronting me was very direct - startlingly so - friendly and extraordinarily enthusiastic about his trees. In my capacity as round timber buyer for our family firm of Suffolk cabinet-makers, I was actually a predator - a man on the lookout for prime trees. Yet James was a lover of young trees, having no time for mature and moribund specimens. "Cut it down and it will give me so much room to plant my young ones", he would say. I warmed to him very quickly!
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Boxted oaks "hardening off" outside James’ back door. |
James was not content just to sell his mature trees to a cabinet-maker, he wanted to see what we made, how we made it and insisted on meeting our staff at both sawmill and workshops. What is your optimum length for an oak veneer butt ? What girth should my wild cherry be ? Will the stain on my sweet chestnut cause problems ? And so on. Filled with this information, off he would go and high prune like mad - an attack of "the ups" is how he would describe it !
Fortunately, James kept meticulous records in his famous "Tree Book" - a huge tome which would always be near at hand, even in the woods, usually on the seat of his battered Range Rover. It contained notes of plantings, measurements, observations of all kinds, policy thoughts for that year, but above all photographs of his trees and their progress. It was his most practical and perfect tool.
Writing an article for the CLA in 1985 James warned "I did not realise at the time how massive my planting programme must be. Mine is the only labour available, all the work has to be within my physical power - and this is one of the points that I have proved to my own satisfaction; it is possible for a 67 year old man to plant, establish and bring to a condition ready for the future, valuable self-standing hardwood trees".
During our early years of working together, James taught me a lot about raising good quality trees. Pretty soon the "planting bug" grew within me and The Predator weakened. Being now overtaken with a thirst for more forestry knowledge, I joined the Royal Forestry Society’s East Anglian Division (covering Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire) meeting other expert tree growers and lapping up the information and camaraderie. But I simply did not know enough to challenge The Accepted Word, even when I had my doubts about a certain piece of forestry. I needed a hit man at my side, and who better than the man from Boxted Hall ! James, living just across the border in Essex, had to be granted special permission by the R.F.S. to join the East Anglian Division and within minutes of arriving at his first woodland meeting, made a dramatic impact by questioning just about everything in the nicest possible way - smiling, then backing down.
Afterwards, members came up to enquire who my companion was and where did he come from ? Well, over the years James was fondly accepted by everyone and whenever he was unable to attend a meeting, it was usually a pretty uneventful one. He had the knack of "stirring things up", not maliciously, but James always made people think deeply and the ensuing debate was invariably humorous.
The East Anglian Division came to Boxted Hall in 1975, planted a commemorative tree (which died) - came again in 1988 when he ruthlessly high pruned perfect trees until his guests pleaded for mercy.
I persuaded him to join us on a week’s trip to Denmark in 1991, where we had a memorable time in the company of
knowledgeable foresters and generous hosts. It rained buckets but James thrived, just like his young trees.
The woodlands at Boxted were host to one of the most important forestry events in 1992 when the National R.F.S. meeting was held in Suffolk and Essex. James had planned for months ahead and was, as ever, meticulous with his programme. Wearing a bright red sunhat and carrying a portable stepladder, he delivered his theories at every stop - just like a speaker at Hyde Park Corner. Then he would both amaze - and appal - his audience with a sudden and vigorous attack of high pruning on some unsuspecting 20 year old oak in the June heat. He was unstoppable. Everyone present (and there were at least 100) had a marvellous day and went away with their pre-conceived forestry thoughts seriously challenged by his deep thinking and outrageous experiments.
At the final presentation, the R.F.S. president, having given a vote of thanks, proposed that James Blewitt’s Boxted Hall Estate be nominated for the new Forestry Commission’s "Centre of Excellence" Award. Everyone present approved this splendid idea. Several weeks later, I took a telephone call from James who was laughing so much that he could hardly read the Forestry Commissioner’s letter - a letter which informed him that they could not see fit to make the proposed award for a variety of reasons (which, to this day, are quite incomprehensible). Instead, they gave it to a young farmer and his wife who had planted up about 10 acres of farmland with hardwoods three years previously ! James was truly amused by that decision and said that perhaps he really ought to toe the Official Forestry Line and stop experimenting. Fat chance.
History books are littered with stories of how eccentric British characters have been ignored by those in authority, yet here we have another example. Certainly, James was eccentric. But he was also highly intelligent, scientific in his approach and carried out experiments on trees which he knew would need testing with the passage of time.
Sadly, James was never given that time, for in his latter years he suffered from dementia and was cared for by his family, finally passing quietly away this year.
It is certainly true that Woodland Heritage would not have been founded without James Blewitt’s influence and enthusiasm for trees and forestry. We owe him a huge debt.
Peter Goodwin
HARRY sTEBBING
Furniture maker
Furniture maker
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| The Great Hockham Bench. |
Harry Stebbing is one of our newest Corporate Members, a talented Norfolk craftsman who still believes in traditional old-fashioned values. This small company prides itself on its attention to detail. Using only English oak purchased from a managed source, which is then used for commissions from private clients, plus ecclesiastical furniture, but mainly notice boards for Parish and Town Councils.
Harry has always been concerned with his company’s stance on the environment. Most of the furniture is finished with totally eco-friendly organic oil, in this way the health of the end user as well as the environment is protected, but despite sourcing his timber carefully he still sought a way of putting something back. As part of Harry’s commitment towards a ‘greener’ environment he undertakes, through an initiative with Woodland Heritage, to have planted an oak tree for every item ordered.
Now he can rest assured that his contribution to the cause of planting and managing trees will benefit our environment - and yet still produce timber for future generations.
Harry Stebbing can be contacted at Eeyore’s House, Great Hockham Norfolk IP24 1PE Tel 01953 498766 E-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it |
 Memorial Bookcase - Holy Trinity Church. |
Double-doored Notice Board. |
| Releafing Ireland with Broadleaf Woodlands |
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by Jan Alexander - President |
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"Crann" is the Irish word for tree. It is also the name we chose for the organisation which was founded in 1986 to help bring broadleaved trees back into Ireland. Crann is a non-profit organisation which has membership of around 1000 to date.
Crann was formed with a backdrop of Irish forestry consisting of mainly age class softwood plantations, coupled with total reliance on imported hardwood timber to supply Irish furniture manufacturing and joinery needs. Most foresters I spoke to at that time would ask, "Are you talking about broadleaved trees or commercial forestry ?" - the words "commercial" and "broadleaves" seemed incompatible. Broadleaved trees were seen as purely for amenity purposes. At the same time, most environmental organisations were concerned with stopping the efforts of others rather than promoting an alternative. Crann was launched with the ethos of promoting something positive - that of releafing Ireland with broadleaved trees.
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President Mary Robinson at the inaugural tree planting at the Oak Glen site in Co. Wicklow. Oak Glen is a project initiated by Crann. |
Over the 15 years since we started out, we have been involved in and initiated many educational projects with schools; urban tree promotion and tree planting; events to raise tree awareness and local initiative forestry and woodland projects. We have run woodland management training courses and seminars. Currently we are involved with a hedgerow management initiative with other NGOs. Crann tries to work with all those involved with trees, forests and woodlands, seeking always common ground.
Due to the small population base in Ireland raising funds for an NGO such as Crann is not easy. We receive some help from the EC through the Forest Service, and we also work with the Corporate sector on various projects. Our core funding comes mainly from membership. We produce a colour magazine entitled ‘Releafing Ireland’, published quarterly, which is self-financing through advertising.
Although our main thrust is to see broadleaved trees back on the commercial agenda here in Ireland, we do promote woodland conservation in its own right also. However, with Ireland relying almost entirely on imported hardwoods, we feel the main priority must be:
1) to reintroduce, on a meaningful scale, the growth of hardwoods in both the private and public sector and
2) to highlight the environmental damage and abject poverty created by the importation and use of tropical hardwoods.
We promote Close to Nature forestry systems and have a good working relationship with Pro Silva Ireland which was formed in the last two years.
Crann works with craftspeople and furniture makers who use Irish hardwoods; however our membership list has yet to include the same proportion of joiners and furniture manufacturers, as does Woodland Heritage. This is inspirational and certainly an aim for us in the future.
We greatly admire the work being done by your organisation, and are pleased to have reciprocal membership with Woodland Heritage. Let’s hope we can co-operate at every opportunity to help releaf these islands and perhaps help halt the exploitation of other countries of their life-sustaining timbers.
Crann |
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Out of the Woods Philip Koomen: a sustainable approach to furniture design |
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Oxfordshire’s woodlands are in a state of ecological and economic crisis. Almost two thirds of UK woodlands are privately owned and most timber resources are poorly used. Oxfordshire’s small woodlands have the capacity to produce timber worth up to £1 million each year, but current production is almost negligible.
Are there any solutions ? In an effort to find alternative and sustainable ways of sourcing, processing and utilising wood, the Philip Koomen workshop makes creative use of local timber resources that are not usually considered commercially viable in the timber trade. Koomen has developed a ‘local cycle’ which promotes greater collaboration and support among woodland owners and local forestry-related businesses. The timber is sourced from estates and woodlands within thirty miles of the workshop in South Oxfordshire. Local sawmills convert the timber into pieces, which are dried on site at the workshop ready for use. By reducing the number of stages in the supply chain, woodland owners are able to negotiate a better price for their timber.
Locally grown trees, which have not been grown specifically for timber production, come in a huge variety of shapes and species. These timbers have many unique characteristics, including knots, cracks, unusual grain patterns, or uneven colouring caused by fungi or age. Because conventional manufacturers need wood that has consistent qualities to maximise efficiency, the variety found in local timber complicates production. For this reason, local timbers are typically used for firewood and low value products.
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Bourton House, Bourton-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire. |
Yet, unusually shaped trees and planks can inspire unique design forms. The varied characteristics of locally grown timber can be used to create furniture with a distinctive regional identity.
The creation of an infrastructure to facilitate the sourcing, conversion, drying and selection of locally grown hardwoods has fundamentally altered the working practices of the Philip Koomen workshop. The project has increased our understanding of the difficulties and challenges that forestry professionals and the timber trade are faced with, and has created a growing network of collaborators among professionals who derive their livelihoods from local woodlands and the world’s forests.
The Pondlife bench is one example of this radical rethink of the purpose of furniture and the local cycle. Its unusual form has evolved through the exploration of sweet chestnut thinnings and the relationship between sculpture and furniture, function and fantasy. As sculpture, Pondlife invites one to enjoy the tactile qualities of the sinewy reeds. However, unlike most sculptures, it can be utilised for seating, as a space for respite, contemplation and personal reflection, either in the garden or the home.
The Oxfordshire Woodland Project identified sweet chestnut thinnings from Bagley Wood near Boars Hill, as an under-utilised, durable and locally grown hardwood. The misshapen thinnings - often regarded as a waste product and usually removed to promote the growth of stronger, straighter trees - are particularly suitable for Pondlife’s curvaceous carved reeds. The thinnings are cut into halves at the Bagley Wood sawmill and delivered directly to the workshop where they are stored until band sawn and shaped to create the finished Pondlife reeds.
A TRUSTEE'S POINT OF VIEW
It’s three years now since I was invited by Peter Goodwin and Lewis
Scott to become a Trustee. At that time I knew very little about
Woodland Heritage except that it was one of the charities concerned
with trees and woodlands. Now that I am fully aware of its mission, and
the energy with which it carries it out, I am even more delighted and
honoured to be a Trustee.
Let me spell it out. An organisation is the sum of its people. No other organisation in this field, let alone a charity, has such a wealth of experience and expertise amongst its members as does Woodland Heritage. To read the Journal, to listen and talk with experts during the Field Days, is to read and to hear, to tap into a mine of knowledge of our subject and our objectives. For the sake of other “lay” members (I am an ex-furniture manufacturer: not a “tree person”), I will restate our purpose: it is to encourage the use of and to spread the knowledge of best practice in the planting and care of trees to provide the best timber for commercial use. Trees can be, and should be, much more than an attractive way of coating the land. Woodlands, properly looked after, can provide their owners with a full and sustainable return on their investment; trees can earn their keep – and they do it beautifully.
As an active Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers, I also have a personal objective: to strengthen the ties between Woodland Heritage and the furniture industry’s livery company.
Roger Richardson
IAIN McGREGOR DESIGNS
His own story
His own story
In 1985, with thirty-five years of practical life experience behind me, the business of Iain McGregor Designs was born. All the wood used is obtained from the North of England or Southern Scotland - either from windblown trees, amenity trees that have to be felled or from numerous large Estates in the area. An active regeneration of local planting is carried out using indigenous stock seed from selected stock seed trees grown in the Scottish Borders. Most of the timber used is over two hundred years old, occasionally ancient trees of over four hundred and fifty years old. Once the trees are collected together they are taken to the local sawmill, again family run. It is always a joy to see a fine oak log, sometimes over forty-eight quarter girth and up to fifteen feet long, gradually revealing itself as each board comes off the saw. In a matter of less than an hour, you can watch three hundred years of growth reveal grain patterns, blind knots, imperfections and perfection in the even and uneven growth patterns that any dendrologist would watch with sheer envy, knowing that you had the sole privilege of seeing something no other person had seen before.
"Edinburgh" style wheelbenches. |
Once the wood is planked, it is stickered within softwood lathes, evenly spaced to hold the boards apart to allow the air to circulate and ultimately to dry the wood. The drying process is purely natural and, in order that the wood dries out evenly, we paint the ends to stop water moving out too fast and causing major end cracks.
In sticker and undercover for protection, the oak will stay undisturbed for at least three years, the heavier sections four, five or six years. This allows the moisture gradient of the wood to drop slowly and naturally, the wood will shrink, warp slightly and most of the water will evaporate, eventually reaching 18-20% moisture content. Once the wood reaches the same moisture content as the air around it, it will become stable with only a few minor fluctuations. As all our furniture is made for outside use, this tried and tested method used by craftsmen for over five centuries, gives a very stable and strong product. The wood, now air dried and seasoned, is taken into the workshop where it is marked, planed, sawn and shaped.
Iain, in his workshop. |
Slowly, the component parts take shape, be it for an "Aberdeen" style, a "Glasgow" style or a one-off special. Stainless steel screws are used to combat the corrosive effects of the tannic acid and after many hours of preparation the various piles of assorted shapes come together to become a complete familiar unit.
When fully sanded down, inspected and passed, each piece is humbly marked with the Iain McGregor Designs label. This signature signifies that this is an individual piece created by old style craftsmen, geriatric machinery, generations of experience and at least two hundred years of nature, to produce a traditional bench in the finest English Oak which will go on to give several generations more the pleasure, comfort and beauty which oak deserves.
I was once asked by our accountant why I didn’t expand, diversify, modernise and make more money. My answer was, why ? If you are doing something you enjoy, are able to work with people who have talent, have time to talk with and make a product which your customers appreciate, work with the best raw materials available and work to your own honest standards, why change ?
So the future is more of the same, for as long as the same is possible.
Iain McGregor Designs. Tel: 01573 410277. e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it |
THE ARCHITECT OF HIS OWN RESTING PLACE - HIS OWN WOODLAND
TOM BUSH
The architect of his own resting place – his own woodland
TOM BUSH
In 1989 Tom Bush came back to Suffolk, to live at Yeovil House at Darsham. Buying land to plant a wood seemed like a good idea “to keep me out of mischief,” give him some enjoyment during retirement and provide a worthwhile legacy for his grandchildren.
The area he purchased at Farnham comprised 51 acres under arable cultivation and 26 acres of established tree belts, including part of an ancient woodland but mostly having been replanted in the 1950s and neglected.
The sale was completed a few months before the October 1987 hurricane, which brought many of the mature trees crashing down. During the next four years with the help of Paul Johnston of the Forestry Authority and grants from the farm woodland scheme and Countryside Commission, Tom planted sweet chestnuts, oaks, wild cherries, walnuts, mulberries and many other species – on the former arable land and, after thinning operations, in the established woodlands.
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A part of “Racewalk Covert” Green Burial Ground. |
He watched contractors plant the first five acres and then decided he could not only do the job cheaper himself but get some exercise into the bargain. The work went on through cold and wet from 7.30 am with Tom stopping only for a cup of coffee, or in harsh cold, a nip of whisky. At noon he had to head home for a meal on his diabetic diet.
Although Tom did the greatest share of the planting, he from time to time enlisted the help of casual labour, including two “good looking and muscular” local women. Pausing to watch his grandchildren playing among the trees, he reflected on what the wood would look like when they were grown-up. “I do not believe in marble gravestones,” he said. “This wood is the only memorial I want.”
With Racewalk Covert finally planted up, Tom now carried out methodical maintenance – pruning, watering and tending his trees.
All this time Tom was fighting the local Planners for permission to have his wood consecrated as a Green Burial Ground. Months of meetings with “TE’s” his shorthand for Theoretical Environmentalists - people who pontificate about “green issues” from behind a desk and who never get their hands dirty. His scathing remarks often slowed down the delicate negotiations, but in the end Tom won his battle. Racewalk Covert would be the final resting place for those who sought peace and quiet.
Sadly, Tom’s health deteriorated soon after he had seen in the Millennium and he passed away last year. He went with a smile because he too would now be able to rest under his beloved trees.
Peter Goodwin
"TURNING NATURE INTO ART"
An Appreciation of Richard Chapman
An Appreciation of Richard Chapman
Richard Chapman might be forgiven for rubbing his hands with glee in windy weather. Plummeting trees suit his creative purposes perfectly.
The woodturner’s Norfolk workshop lies amid stocks of fallen timber bartered from local landowners and firewood merchants or foraged from near and far. In this converted farm smithy there are lumps of blackened bog oak which like Celtic altars, were buried for thousands of years until farmers snagged tractors on them in the subsiding peat of the Fens.
Hunks of bright-red yew, grey ash and creamy elm glint between stored stacks of box, plane, mulberry, acacia, lilac, cherry and chestnut. All will be chopped or carved, hollowed, planed, burned, dyed or polished - and even dried in the microwave - all in the name of art.
Until a decade ago this labour of love was essentially a hobby for a school games teacher whose pupils included a future Olympic medal-winner for hockey. But since moving full-time to woodturning, Richard has carved himself a singular niche. Massive platters, bowls and urns have flowed from his workshop like wooden monuments.
The holy grail of woodturners is the black poplar. Once planted across East Anglia for its fire-resistant timber, this tree lost popularity two centuries ago and began to die out. Today it’s extremely scarce and highly protected. Male and female trees rarely grow together - with the latter now reduced to just 500 examples among the 700 mature trees remaining in Britain.
But Richard recently struck lucky. "One tree was observed over many years by a friend of mine as it gradually acquired a dramatic lean over a busy road" he says. "Finally with insurance claims looming, permission was granted to fell it - into my hands! As a timber it is very wet, soft and abrasive. When turned, freshly felled, it’s like turning a handful of wet string. With the sharpest tools and greatest care - with hours of sanding and use of a hairdryer - the finish resembles suede."
Some of the most dramatic vases have been made from spalted beech - trees attacked by fungus as they die, spreading black, orange or green lines through the wood like contours on ordnance survey maps.
Trees, like all living things have a finite span of existence - but Richard’s creative process saves age-old wood for eternity. It turns nature into art.
With an eye for striking combinations of grain, colour and burr; the expert woodturner also turns faults into interesting features. When rare cracks emerge during the production process they can be incorporated into the design.
Merging faults into flawless vessels, and blending the ancient with the modern, Richard Chapman has proved himself both an artisan and an artist.
Ian Collins
Art critic, exhibition curator and author
 Richard shows the extraordinary beauty of a spalted beech piece. |  |
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