A Scottish farmer who is diversifying into sawmilling was the top student who took part in Woodland Heritage’s ever popular ‘From Woodland to Workshop’ training course in 2018.
Neil Girvan is a partner on the family farm in the Cheviot Uplands of the Scottish Borders, working hard to improve the farm for the fourth generation. Extending to 850 acres (including 60 acres of woodland) with 350 suckler cows and 100 breeding ewes, Neil is hoping to develop their forestry management by establishing an Oak woodland on the farm, as well adding value by increasing their timber processing by cutting and drying more hardwood timber in their own sawmill.
The unanimous choice of the expert tutors on last year’s course and the ninth recipient overall, Neil received The Prince of Wales Award at Woodland Heritage’s Field Weekend in June this year.
“We were delighted to have been able to offer Neil a place on the May 2018 course and noted that one of the reasons he wanted to be there was because he had set himself the goal to grow Oak in 100 years”, said Guy Corbett-Marshall, Woodland Heritage’s Chief Executive. “Neil had read about our ‘From Woodland to Workshop’ courses many times and was keen to take part. For him, an important element of our course was measuring timber and learning about the drying process, as well as spending a whole day in The Duchy’s Timberline and Mary Glover woodlands. He also managed to find the time whilst on the course to turn a beautiful Walnut sphere which has pride of place at home; Neil is a worthy recipient of The Prince of Wales Award.”
Neil is an active member of The Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers (ASHS) and has plans to grow the forestry side of his farm greatly, helped by what he learned on the ‘W2W’ course:
“We have continued to plant more Oak (Quercus Robur); our idea is to plant 1000 every year for ten years but having seen the Wild Service Trees on the course we managed to plant 250 of them along with the Oak,”, said Neil. “The course was tremendous for me and the knowledge the tutors have to pass on is amazing in every respect; I will continue to refer back to what I learned for years to come.”
Reflective of the diversity of the sector, past winners of The Prince of Wales Award, introduced in 2010, have included forestry consultants, sawmillers and woodworkers, all of whom remain working actively in the forestry and timber sectors.
The next ‘From Woodland to Workshop’ course is planned for 23-25 September and there is still time to apply. More information can be found here.