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THECOPPICE

ASSOCIATIONNorth West

NEWSLETTER No 52 Autumn 2015

Saturday 17th we will walk to Force Knott Woodacross the road from the campsite for a morningof hands-on craft sessions. There will be shakemaking, swill basket making and spoon carvingto have a go at. Tony Saunders will be showingsome fine bow making. Feel free to bring yourskills to share too, so we’ll have the woodbustling with activity.

CANW members, please book as quickly as youcan, it will help us to get a good view of thenumbers, and then drop Grace a line to to let herknow you’re coming. It’s not necessary to be aCANW or NCFed member to book. This is also agreat weekend for anyone curious aboutcoppicing in the UK, and local woodlandmanagement and crafts.

A range of accommodation options is availableon a first come, first served basis. For the fullprogram, information on subsidised places, and tobook your spot come to:http://ncfed.org.uk/agm-and-gathering/ .

Get yourself ready for a three day celebration ofeverything coppice. CANW is hosting the UKCoppice Industry’s annual get-together inGrizedale this October. This means games, talks,hands-on sessions, plenty of nosing around inother people’s woods, good company and a chanceto strengthen bonds with coppicers from far andwide. This national gathering is the time to drawinspiration from the work of other regional groupsand individuals, and to give direction to NCFed’scampaigns.

The camping, dining and conference sites aresecured, the program is ready, the bookings havestarted to come in and we’re looking for good folkto come and help out before and during theweekend.

Friday 16th of October Bowkerstead FarmCampsite near Satterthwaite opens to visitors from4pm. Bring your tents or get comfy in the yurt orone of the glamping pods. Please let Grace know ifyou can join us at Bowkerstead Farm earlier thatday to start rigging and help set up communalspaces for the weekend.

NCFed Up North!

www.coppicenorthwest.org.uk

‘Probably the best coppicing related newsletter in the North West’ -Sam Ansell

NCFed AGM preparations: volunteers wanted

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COMMITTEE 2014

WALTER LLOYDPresidentLakeland WillowsFairfview LaneStaveley in CartmelUlverston, CumbriaLA12 8NSM 077 4 005 3794

SAM ANSELLChairM 07990952473sam.j.ansell@gmail.com

GRACE HOLLANDSecretaryC/o the officesecretary.canw@googlemail.com

REBECCA OAKSVice-chair93 Silverdale RoadYealand RedmayneCarnforthLA5 9TDTel: 01524 781375rebacca.oaks@btinternet.com

LOUIS LE GLASTreasurerlouis@coppicecoop.co.ukVia Sam Ansell

BRIAN CRAWLEY11a Merefell RoadBolton Le SandsCarnforthLA5 8EXTel: 01524 903583

TWIGGY209 Chorley RoadBlackrod, BoltonBL6 5LJM 07734 353 202stiggytwiggy@hotmail.com

EDWARD MILLS5 Beech CourtBirkrigg Park HighCarley, UlverstonLA12 0UHTel. 01229 582551M 07875 248115Edward-pam@woodisgood.fsnet.co.uk

FLORA ABBESNewsletter EditorLakeland View Cottage4a The PromenadeArnside, CumbriaLA5 OHFM 07790527327florisabbes@gmail.com

OFFICEc/o Cumbria WoodlandsRiver Mill,Staveley Mill Yard,Staveley,KendalCumbria LA8 9LRTel. 01539 822140Fax. 01539 822443canw@coppicenorthwest.org.ukwww.coppicenorthwest.org.uk

Events

14-18th September Woodland PioneersSee the BHMAT website

Saturday 10th OctoberMoss and Height Spring Wood WorkdayGet that wood spruced up and ready for NCFed AGM site visits.

Sunday 11th OctoberAcorn Bank Apple Day:Lovely well-attended truly fruity event in the beautiful garden of theNational Trust’s Acorn Bank. If you want to help run the CANW stall ortake it there, sell your wares, demo, talk coppicing and sample applesplease let Grace know.16/17/18 OctoberCANW Hosts NCFed AGMFrom BBQ Friday at Bowkerstead Farm Campsite in Satterthwaite, toSaturday’s site-visits at multiple woodlands at the same time, to theAGM, talks, workshops and discussions at ‘The Yan’ in Grizedale, tolast goodbyes at the Coppice Coop yard near Silverdale, this is going tobe one great do. CANW are organising this so any help you can give willbe much appreciated. Contact Grace secretary.canw@googlemail.com .For full details and to book: http://ncfed.org.uk/agm-and-gathering/ .

Friday 30th October 2015One Planet Festival Forest MarketOne Planet Festival returns to Lancaster in October 2015 with a ForestMarket for wood carvers, wood turners, coppice workers or woodlandfanatics on Lancaster Market Square Friday 30th October. For moreinformation please contact anna@lessuk.org .

One for the leather workers To get something ‘spruced up’ doesn’t take its meaning from trees but has everything to do with spruce: imported leather from Prussia that was considered smart, trim and the height of dapper fashion in the 1400s.

Sam & Sam brought green woodworking workshops to Beatherder festival, Clitheroe, and ran into this tree!

Local Woodsman Jack AllonbyA recent visit to the Oxfam shop in Ulverstonrevealed a stack of Cumbria Lake District lifeMagazines dating from the 1970's and 80's. Anarticle on “A Cabin in the Furness Woods” caughtmy eye and further research revealed a number ofarticles relating to Jack Allonby, a local coppicemerchant.

The Allonby family were woodsmen forgenerations, at least dating back to the 1700's, andJack (John) followed in the footsteps of hisgrandfather and father, both also called Jack. Jackstarted as a farm worker at the age of 14 and aftersix months 'bought', that is the standing timberonly, his first wood at Bridgefield. In subsequentyears he worked Maggie's Wood at Spark Bridge,alternating between farm work in the summer andcoppicing in the winter until the age of 20 whenhe became a full time woodsman.

Trees were felled in the winter, the season forwinter wood ending on 5th April. After that onlyoak was cut for the bark which was peeled whenthe sap was rising from May to the end of July.The bark was used in tannery's. Jack notes thebark was chopped into 2 inch lengths. Charcoalproduction was typically undertaken inSeptember and October before fellingrecommenced in November.

Expenses were small, apart from the cost ofbuying the standing timber Jack had a couple ofaxes, a felling hook and a bill hook plus the costof lodgings if working away from home. In thelate summer months when coaling (producingcharcoal) they would live in a charcoal burnerscabin.

The cabin comprised a substantial low stone wallwith a conical roof made of timbers bearing on thewall and tied at the top. The roof was coveredwith thin turf sods. Sodding the cabin might taketwo days, the roof of a cabin being about 80square yards. A sack, provided by the ironworks,made a convenient door.

Wood for charcoal was cut into three foot lengthscalled shanklings and the rest into two footcoalwood, stacked around the pitstead to seasonprior to the burn.

Jack also made besoms, the Cumbrian besomcomprises a short shaft, about three feet of ashand a head of birch 'chat'. When Jack started tomake besoms in the 1920's he was paid a 'bob adozen' (one shilling in old money, 5p indecimal). A good craftsman could produce 40 to50 dozen a day!

Together with Bill Norris he built a modelpitstead for the film “The Charcoal Burners ofHigh Furness” (1973). He and his brotherNorman and Bill Norris also provided advice forthe Swallows and Amazons film starring VirginiaMcKenna and Sophie Neville (1974) for thescene where the children visit the charcoalburner and his adder, kept under the bed for luck.Sophie recalls the charcoal heap was probablyhollow with a prop man inside with a smoke gun.

“Those were the charcoal burners we saw lastnight she said. I asked Mrs Dixon if they weresavages, and she said some people would say so.She says they live in huts they make themselvesout of poles. She says they keep a serpent in abox” Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome,1930.

Anyone got a snake?

Jack worked Sales Bank Wood until the 1960's,mainly for bobbin wood and crate wood. In1998, Brian and Louise Crawley began re-instatement of the coppice rotation, from 2003Edward Mills continued the management of thewood.

More research is required to give a fuller pictureof Jack's life.

Wilson IrvingAugust 2015

ReferencesCumbria Lake District Life Magazine:A Charcoal “Burn”, March 1973A Cabin in the Furness Woods, July 1975Jack Allonby, March 1976Jack Allonby makes a besom, April 1980Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome, 1930Sophie Neville, posts about 'Swallows andAmazons', sophieneville.net

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Stott Mill Park Earthburn 2015According to Brian Crawley Stott Mill Park Earthburn 2015 may be going down in history as one ofthe best. Only a few brown ends and gorgeous charcoal. This was the first earthburn for apprenticesRachel and Jack. As some old hand said: “If you have not completed an earthburn you have not verilylived.” It’s something of an initiation too; you are different person once you start doing earthburns!

The burn was well organised by Dave Noblett and Sam Robinson and thank you guys! And thanks toeverybody who came to stack and cover the pile on Friday, it was up in no time. And thanks to every-body who was there to draw the heat to the very edges and yet guard the thing from going up in a terri-ble blaze. And thanks to everybody who was there to patch, cook, crack jokes and bag the charcoal.And to Brian for showing his way with the elements. And Sam Junior and Maya and her brother forworking hard and learning lots. To John Ashton for taking iconic pictures and sharing them onwww.flickr.com/photos/ickledot/albums . And to Mick for looking after us so well.

Dave R, Wilson and Dave N off to a quick startstacking round the chimney.

The stack half clad in bracken.

Duncan checking the amount of kindling in the chimney.

Many visitors kept coming back day after day to see the burn progress. Here are some shots of whatthey would have seen:

Sam R pouring in burning coals to light the fire.

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Rachel and Paul patching the clamp with mud and turf.

Opening the mound we uncover a mass of beautiful charcoal.

Sam and Reuben bagging charcoal.

Red coal right up to the edge.Time to start dousing.

Cumbrian Black Gold.

Morning after the first night. The pudding has shrunk considerably. Experimental buttresses are used to keep a steep side from sliding off.

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A charcoal making retort

I have always been fascinated with charcoal re-torts so was delighted to be told that Charles andShirley Stewart, in Penrith, had recently acquiredone and would I like to go and see it. The ExeterRetort was made by Carbon Compost Co. Ltd. inExeter and as the name of the company suggestsit is made primarily to make Biochar for compostproduction. Although conceived for biochar theretort produces barbecue charcoal very satisfacto-rily. A few other businesses seem to have takenon production of these devices. Carbon Gold andBlack Mountain Woodfuel come to mind.

Confusion exists between the understandings ofretorts and kilns. Retorts are generally acknowl-edged as having separate compartments for thewood to be charcoaled (or charred) and the burn-ing that is needed to provide the heat for the char-ring. Back in the 1990s the Websters Retort (with2 charcoal compartments) appeared to be the onlylower cost kit fulfilling this feature. By my under-standing kilns are single compartment systems(including earthburns) where some of the materi-al is burned to provide the heat to char the re-mainder. Again back in the 1990s DaveHutchinson’s Viper was a kiln although manyregarded it as a retort because of its slight com-plexity. Not many people know that it was alsointended to be operated as a continuous process,feeding wood in at the top and extracting char-coal from the bottom. It was also mobile onwheels but seemed to have had problems.

Charles and Shirley’s retort however does havetwo separate compartments and is mounted on atrailer to be mobile. This big advantage allows itto be easily moved to the wood source rather thanthe less efficient moving of heavy weights ofwood.

It is at present surrounded by the previouswood stash and when I arrived was full ofcold charcoal from the previous day’s burnbeing the thirteenth since it had been ob-tained. Unbolting the well-sealed outer circu-lar door at the back end of the horizontalcylinder gave access to the outer compartmentwhere the small remains of ash from the ini-tial fuelling were seen and the supports of theinner cylinder and pipes from it to bring gas-ses out and into the burning area.

Charles and Shirley’s mobile Exeter Retort.

Retort with outer door opened.Unbolting and opening the inner door re-vealed the approximately 60% fill of beautifulcharcoal.

Charles had arranged his grading device andfines collector outside the opening and thecharcoal was raked on to it and then shovelledinto sacks. The height of the equipment wasjust right to make this the least back stressfulas possible, certainly easier than emptyingring kilns. No ash, very little dust, a few finesand perfect barbecue charcoal were a joy toexperience. The only brown end was a chunkabout one foot cube that Charles had purpose-ly put in to demonstrate the limits. Raking outthe rest of the burn resulted in about 105kg ofproduct.

Retort with inner door opened. Quality charcoal inside.

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The inner charcoaling compartment was immedi-ately refilled with a trailer load of recently col-lected dead branch wood, mostly about 6 feetlong and 2-4 inch diameter. Some short cleftpieces were used to fill the gaps. The doors werethen closed ready for a burn the following day.The whole operation took about 2 hours.

I had never really thought about the burn methodwhich turns out to be a little technical. As wellas a chimney vent, which has a butterfly valve,and the adjustable small fuel and air inlet doorsat each end of the outer fuelling compartmentthere are 2 other vents at the top directly from theinner charcoaling compartment. These vents alsohave internal pipes that eventually take the com-bustible gasses from the charcoaling wood intothe outer fuelling compartment. The outer, at-mospheric opening of these vents can be cappedto be sealed. Hope this is clear so far! One ofthese vents has a thermocouple which gives atemperature reading at the side of the retort.

The burn is started by inserting some small fuelwood into the bottom of the outer compartmentthrough the small end doors and lighting it. Morefuel is fed in as necessary. Any waste wood canbe used. Charles is using an old shed which hadcollapsed. The thermometer temperature increas-es, steam is emitted from the inner compartmentvents and after about 2 hours the temperature ishigh enough for these vents to be closed and thecombustible gasses vented into the fuelling com-partment to continue the heating. Air inlet controland exhaust gas control is exercised as indicatedby the temperature.

Saturday and Sunday 26-27th SeptemberAxe Making with Nic WestermannStarting from a billet of tool steel you will learn toforge, heat treat and sharpen an axe head. Handlemaking and fixing will be covered. It’s £170 fortwo days pounding in Bodfari, Wales, with freecamping included.Book a spot at http://woodlandskillscentre.co.uk .

Saturday and Sunday 3rd-4th OctoberCharcoal Production with Sam AnsellLearn the artistry and intricacies of charcoalburning. You will learn to use ring kilns and tomake charcoal on a back yard scale in barrels.Course covers all aspects from timber choice andpreparation to bagging and selling your charcoal.Also make biochar as a byproduct and improveyour garden soil! Fee £100. For info and to bookcontact info@coppicecoop.co.uk or ring0776 6629 523.

Saturday 7th NovemberPractical Coppicing with Sam AnsellLearn the basics of coppicing in a woodlandsetting. Covering all aspects including; access,product selection, felling, dressing out, bundling,adding value. Fee £50. For info and to bookcontact info@coppicecoop.co.uk or ring0776 6629 523.

Training & Courses

The inner compartment wood does not burn, it isonly baked (by pyrolysis) and becomes charcoal.The thermometer indicates when conversion iscomplete and the retort is sealed and left to cool.

A couple of interesting articles about the retortappeared in Living Woods in 2012 and you canfind links on www.biocharretort.com. I have notseen the burn but would very much like to and Imust try and persuade Charles to bring it down tonext year’s earthburn event at Stott Park BobbinMill!

Brian CrawleyJuly 2015

Charles bagging charcoal. Grading device and finescollector placed directly at he opening of the retort.

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What have snakes got to do with it?The charcoal burner in Swallows and Amazonskeeps a snake. There are suggestions of connec-tions between melanistic adders and pitsteads.Raphael Treza shot a documentary in northernIndia titled “Cobra Gypsies” (available onYoutube) about the snake hunters of the nomadiccharcoal burning tribe called Kalbeliya ‘thosewho love snakes’. What is the connection be-tween charcoal making and snakes? Is there aconnection? Anyone who knows more pleasewrite to florisabbes@gmail.com. All leads andhunches welcome.

Woodland Delicacies No 2.Chicken of the WoodsNot a recipe this time, but something special tolook out for. This fruiting body of a red browncubical heart rot is a striking sight. Laetiporoussulphureus can be spotted in summer but itsgrowing season extends into autumn.

Please send any articles, picturesor drawings by November 27 toflorisabbes@gmail.com .

Thank you for sending yourarticle pictures separately.

We had good summery work days with brackenbashing, fencing, oak peeling and some felling.Future workdays are planned for Saturday 10th ofOctober to get the wood ready for NCFed AGM.Hopefully we can get a charcoal kiln set up. Aspontaneous workday will be announced beforeOctober 10th to get oak cut.

Tony M bundling peeled oak bark on MHSW workday.

Next issue

Moss and Heights Spring Wood

Chicken of the woods is found on oak and some-times on sweet chestnut and willow. With no gillsand large colourful clustered brackets up to 60cmacross this is an easily recognised and deliciousmushroom. The bright yellow underside of theshelves is covered with tiny pores. The velvet skinon the top of the brackets ranges from yellowishorange at the base to yellow at the edge.

Take only young,tender, velvety,spongy firm, juicy,bright colouredbrackets.Do not use any bitsthat have becomepale, woody, crum-bly, soggy orspeckled brown.

Bring a mushrooming book. Do not take themushroom if it grows on conifers. To save thebase of the fruiting body for producing morebrackets, slice rather than tear off your chunks.With its fragrant lemony andchickeny taste thismushroom needs very little.Drop in a skillet with someoil or fat. Maybe sauté withshallots. Very good withparsley or tarragon and rice.