Courses & Events Page Updated

Bitterly cold again outside. Which makes me think of warmer times and so I’ve spent some time updating the Courses & Events page on the website this morning whilst I huddle next to the woodburner and try to mentally prepare myself for going out and getting cold again.

On the rare occasion that the sun does pierce the snowladen grey clouds I have been treated to some very season displays of colour -  as here when I was preparing pea sticks from the cut stems on Lynchmere Common when the low angle of the sun lit the bronzed bracken against the Silver Birch stems and the grey skies behind.

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BBC Countryfile visits the Lynchmere Commons

Just a quick post to get around my continuing writer’s block which seems to have prevented me from posting on almost anything for months now.

The winter working season is in full swing on the Lynchmere commons now. Back in November a film crew from the BBC programme Countryfile spent a day with a group of our volunteers while we were working on Stanley Common and the programme went out on the 2nd December.

If you missed it and want to see what we got upto then this link should take you to the BBC Iplayer ( sadly I think this is only available for IP addresses in the UK) and it’s probably only available until Sunday 9th December. The section on the commons starts at around 20 minutes into the programme.

We were cutting scrub encroaching upon part of the restored common and as usual we were trying to use as much of the cut material as we could. We  threaded (taking the branches off with a bill hook) the straight birch poles and put them to one side for stakes and binders for a  hedgelaying project. After a lunch cooked on the dire I made  a besom broom with John Craven who immediately put it to good use. And yes I am looking for a new test pilot!

As you might imagine it was quite hectic to get everything organised for the day and the time flew past. All in all we had a productive day’s work as well as filming and thanks to the weather we all enjoyed it – I think it’s given us plenty to talk about since just about everyone who turned up ended up on film in one way or another.

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Making Besoms and Shave Horses

Normally my charcoal making site on Lynchmere Common is a quiet and solitary place with only the odd visitor to counter the sound of axe splitting wood (And my chainsaw of course).  But last week I had the pleasure of a visit from the South Downs Volunteer Ranger Service to learn Besom (Birch) broom making. The first task of the day was to make a couple of shave horses so as we worked out how best to start everyone off Dan plays the ancient game of ‘pass the beetle’ (a beetle is a simple heavy wooden mallet) to see who gets to cleeve the first log.

Making Besom (Birch) brooms is an old tradition on the Lynchmere Commons where birch scrub grows so fast on the poor heathland soil that if you blink it will turn to woodland whilst your eyes are shut.

The making of besoms helped to keep areas of the heath free, a process which today in many places is largely replaced by mechanisation and spraying chemicals – but I am very keen to see the birch as a useful crop in the local economy rather than a nuisance and weed, so making besom brooms is a way for people to learn how best to use all parts of the tree.

While making the shave horses and besoms is of course important, the day has to start with putting the kettle on and as you might notice there are not many photos without a mug of tea lurking somewhere – just like the landrover. The washing machine drum has been joined by my recently rebuilt barrow, an old builders barrow rescued from a skip and very simply rebuilt for a new lease of life carrying brushwood to fuel the kettle.

A hive of industry as the two new shave horses take shape accompanied by the inevitable cups of tea.

With the new shave horses ready for use we switched to making besoms, first learning to select the material to build up the heads of the brooms as I demonstrate by making one from bales of birch gathered on the commons in the last winter season and stored in the dry and dark to keep the material from becoming brittle and going rotten.

Jean and Arthur put the new skill touse building their own heads and in the background are the birch poles selected to make the tails 0r handles of the besoms.

While Stephen takes the more comfort oriented route to finishing the head, once complete I use a leather belt to holt the bundle of birch tight enough while the wire bonds are placed around the head.

The last job is to bang the shaved and pointed tail into the bound head. These besoms should be good for a few years of use provided that the birch has been selected, cut at the right time of year and then stored well.

I have been told that for the first year the fresh broom with its long lead would be used to sweep the dew from the lawns (preventing the lord and lady getting their feet and long dresses wet I suppose), the next year for sweeping up leaves, the third in the yard, by the fourth it would be short enough for sweeping out the parlours and the fifth year with just the stubs left would be ideal for sweeping snow from the paths. Then it’s perfect fire lighting material and so the cycle would start again.

Before putting the besoms to good use, which seems to involve beating off the encroaching photographers more than it does sweeping the dew from the lawn. A nice collection of besoms resulted from the day – which I think says more about the aptitude of those taking part than it does my ability to transfer the skills.

 

 

 

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The South Downs National Park

 

Yesterday the South Downs National Park, which has been in existance for a year, cleared its final hurdle as the Park Authority came into existance. By and large it’s business as usual, the hills and valleys, trees and birds haven’t noticed the change but the old south downs committee has now become the park authority – cue rebranding expense as usual. To some this will just be another layer of beauracracy. I’m not a lover of extra layers of government but I do think it’s good that the Sussexand Hampshire South Downs and particularly our section of the Western Weald is recognised as special area with the protection that the National Park brings.

 

And besides it give me the opportunity to post some photos and say a little less. So here is a quick selection of recent photos from the Lynchmere Commons a part of the South Downs National Park.I can never see enough sunsets over the folds of the national park. This one is taken along an Electricity ride on Lynchmere Common.

 

Silver Birch is the most common tree on the commons, having grown largely since the 1940′s they are reaching the end of their short lives.

 

The Birch and Oak provide plenty of opportunity for other flora and fauna to live in and on them – this is a Chicken of the Woods. I’m not saying where I found it as I managed to resist the temptation to take it home and cook it last year.

 

A view of Lynchmere I get to see a lot as it’s the view from my charcoal burning site in the valley by Danley Farm

 

The commons are surrounded by coppice woodland which is primarily Sweet Chestnut used for a range of purposes and particularly good for traditional chestnut fencing in palings, post and wire or post and rail.

 

Making charcoal invovles burning off all of the volatile chemicals from the wood to leave only carbon. The gases are highly flammable and you need to be careful – don’t try this at home, unless you like the smell of singed eyebrows!

 

Traditional Sussex Post and Rail fencing with Sweet Chestnut on the barnyard fenceline. This fenceline is over 30years old since it was put in by one of my neighbours and now it’s being replaced by one of my friends. A nice example of the continuity and consistency which has kept the South Downs and the Western Weald a special place – in these terms I am a newcomer!

Gathering Pea-sticks and beanpoles by hand on the commons is another way in which the character of the landscape is retained. Both in the areas of birch coppiced and in the gardens and allotments that use them.

 

Working outside in all weathers means that I sense much more of the change in weather and the seasons than I used to when I worked indoors and looked out of the window at the weather.

 

I also get the full sense of smell, sights and sounds that the woodland brings through the year – when I can escape from my own perculiar blend of 2-stroke, sawdust, smoke and diesel. Eau de Woodsman I think?  I welcome the South Downs National Park and I am looking forward to working in it immensely.

 

 

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Lynchmere commons – Fungi and Fallen Trees

 

Whoops!  This was supposed to be a bridlepath running in a sunken track. Why is it that trees unerringly seem to know where the paths are and fall on them, except where there is a fence to fall on of course?  It’s not like I have plenty of time to spare either but at least a  couple of  tonnes of oak to cut up before the bridlepath can be reoopened has kept me warm during some cold days.

It’s always a shame when an old, twisted tree, especially an oak is windblown. It has so much more character than a straight pole of a tree and it takes a lot more time to saw up as well.

Although it’s two foot across at the butt it’s probably not that old and judging by the condition of the break it was not in good shape, though there are no obvious fruiting bodies of fungus on the tree.

With a big canopy and the butt suspended in the air above the sunken track the bridlepath runs along I’ve had to dismember the tree bit by bit just to reopen the path. You do need to be very careful working on large windblown trees with all sorts of stress in each and every branch waiting to trap the saw, flip and pivot the branches as you cut them or even see-saw the trunk.

As I finished cutting off the largest branches the balance changed and the butt gracefully sank back down to earth.  A days or two’s worth of exercise and the bridlepath is now open and the trunk is safely wedged on its remaining branch stubs until I can complete the extraction in the next few weeks.

All trees have some fungi in them. Many are necessary for the tree to flourish but as the tree gets older they can also become the mechanism by which the tree dies and as the wood decays it will eventually fall. I could spend all my time trying to keep up with the fungi on the commons and still fail. It’s quite common to see brackets on our birch, particularly the birch polypore (razor strop fungus) but this one has something else growing on it.

From the shape colour and the white gills underneath it looks to me as if it might be oyster mushroom. Any fungi experts out there to help? By and large brackets are inedible and oyster is an exception to this but these are a bit far gone to be edible even if I was certain of their identity.

 

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Lynchmere – Working in the Barnyard

Somehow we chose one of the hottest days of the year (on Saturday) to hold a volinteers work day up at Mare Barn to clear the back of the yard, dismantle an old fence line and to start putting up a new fence line for a small orchard.

Fence gone, hazel cut back and just the butt of the large red oak left to be dismantled.

Some of the old fenceposts were in good shape. We’ve carefully rolled up the wire for reuse and extracted the posts using one of my high-lift jacks and a strop. the vertical lift from the jack pulls the posts out with ease.

Fresh chestnut posts from the coppice just beyond the fields. Hard work as the soil is now dry and like concrete, and the temperature soared to 30 degrees.  Here we will be planting a small community orchard over the winter with 2 or 3 dozen traditional apple trees – mainly old Sussex varieties such as Knobbly Russet (from Midhurst), Bramshott Rectory (from bramshott only a couple of miles away), Sussex Forge and so on.

So some relaxing scything in the shade seemed a good reward. Yes we reward our volunteers with more hard work! Here Dave joined us in the afternoon and was keen to experience the joys of scything. Hopefully he’s now hooked.

..and of course we Cocked It Up! If you mow the grass for hay on the wrong day and it starts to rain before its ready to take in then a quick way to preserve the hay is to make a haycock which helps the water run off the curing grass. Hence to Cock It Up, is when things don’t go according to plan! I have heard other explanations for the phrase but this one seems to make most sense to me.

I got out a polelathe that I keep at the workshop in the barn. It’s made entirely with wood planked up from the commons, birch and scots pine.  Seb kindly helped me set it up and manned the lathe during the evening.

We finished off with a barbeque for the volunteers and members of The Lynchmere Society to celebrate the handover of the barn and the fields – it’s not often you get to take on the stewardship of a 17th century wealden barn and 50 acres of traditional hay meadow and pasture, hedges and woodland belts.  And then around the bonfire which worked well at keeping the insects at bay. No point in leaving until we’d finished the beer – local of course, Golden Bine and Best from Ballards at Nyewood who are celebrating their 30th anniversery this year.

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