trees in art issue | summer 2017 | free

THE ART OF TREES, FLOODING, A NEW ARBOREAL MAP, the newspaper for trees, woods and people THE GREAT STORM, ARTIST RESIDENCIES

Detail from TREE TRAILS by Adam Dant LEAF! | FOR THE ART OF TREES

the newspaper for trees, woods and people Trees have been loved and venerated in cultures across the world since earliest times, and continue to be a source of inspiration and imagination. With his arboreal map, featured on the front cover of LEAF!, the celebrated illustrator Adam Dant shows us just how significant trees are to the story of art in the British Isles, and just how rich and widely located this visual heritage is. Common Ground is adding a new layer to the history of trees in art by curating and commissioning a series of artist residencies around the UK. The Tree Charter campaign Editors has challenged people all across the country Sara Hudston to consider their relationship with trees, Adrian Cooper and to reflect on the importance of trees Art Direction and woods in our culture, environment Gracie Burnett and economy. Over the next few months, Cover Artist eight artists will bring this thought process Adam Dant to life through a series of varied and very Resident Artists exciting residencies that explore, question Alice Pattullo and express the relationship between trees, Bea Forshall woods and people. Illustration Kurt Jackson Inside the Chapter House of Lincoln Eliza Glyn Cathedral, the Turner Prize-winning Harriet Lee-Merrion collective Assemble are making a round John Harmer wood structure, inspired by bodgers – that Simon Pemberton lost tribe of men and women who lived Common Ground Art Collection and worked in woodlands. In Cornwall, Design the painter Kurt Jackson is spending a year Common Ground drawing and painting a single, windswept Little Toller Books hawthorn. In Cumbria, Harriet and Rob Font Fraser are building drystone ‘treefolds’, Sabon & Alice New while in Northern Ireland Christine Mackey Rising from ash: In response to the spread of ash disease across the landscapes of Kent, from the urban Printing is exploring how different communities use fringes of London to the cliffs of Dover, the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty initiated Mortons Print, Lincolnshire Belvoir Wood in southern Belfast. The Ash Project. Alongside the scientific urgency to understand the fungal pathogenHymenoscyphus Paper Wolves are part of poet and artist Alec 50% FSC and 50% recycled fraxineus, which is causing the dieback, there was a need to explore the emotional and historical loss Finlay’s analysis of two leading pine- of this significant species. Artist duo Ackroyd & Harvey were asked to respond by creating sculptural Distributed by wood regeneration projects in the Scottish works that will soon appear in landscapes across Kent, alongside a programme of walks, workshops and The Woodland Trust Highlands. At the National Botanic Garden an education programme. Find out more by visiting theashproject.org.uk Little Toller Books of Wales, Owen Griffiths is investigating Published by the connection between landscape history Common Ground Lower Dairy and politics. Down in Dorset, Clementine Toller Fratrum Dorset DT2 0EL Blakemore is designing and making a new refuge commonground.org.uk outdoor community space. At the Yorkshire by Stephen Boyce The Woodland Trust Sculpture Park, near Wakefield, the story- Kempton Way Grantham telling potential of trees is the main focus What washes up in the forest is no less Lincolnshire NG31 6LL for the internationally acclaimed sound woodlandtrust.org.uk artist, James Webb. a wonder than the flotsam of oceans. These landmark residencies are matched © common ground LEAF! 2017 by a programme of temporary exhibitions Take this skeleton of an upturned ark and events celebrating trees around the stranded among a reach of ash trees, COMMON GROUND is an arts and environmental UK, all fuelled by communities, galleries, charity working both locally beached in leaf litter, its ribs and spars and nationally to seek new, museums and hard-working Charter imaginative ways to engage people Branches who are driving a grassroots secured by a rigging of twiggy larch, with their local environment and celebrate the intimate connections movement to celebrate trees. The almanac communities have with the tangles of plaited honeysuckle, all landscape that surrounds them. on the back cover has further details. This October will be the 30th anniversary THE WOODLAND TRUST is the leaning in as though wanting to give ear UK's largest woodland conservation of the Great Storm, which felled 15 charity, and the leading voice for woods and trees. We inspire million trees but also marked a shift in to silence, breath the wood’s cool must. people to visit woods, plant trees, our understanding of trees. When the treasure wildlife and enjoy the Some Crusoe surely built this, laid limbs overwhelming benefits that woods Tree Charter launches on 6th November and trees offer to our landscape and lives. The Woodland Trust is 2017 in Lincoln Castle, it will celebrate against a fallen ridgepole, woven vines leading the call for a Charter another anniversary: the 800th year since for Trees, Woods and People. For and brushwood, spread out a bed of brash, more information on the Charter the Charter of the Forest was written. We visit treecharter.uk hope the Tree Charter of 2017 will mark learned how stillness is a state of mind, Views expressed are those of the writers. a new phase in our relationship with trees The Woodland Trust is a registered here where things slither, drip and flinch. charity, Nos. 294344 and SC038885. and woods. The energy and passion for our arboreal neighbours stirred during this campaign gives us hope that the lives Stephen Boyce is the author of pamphlets and collections of poetry, including In the Northland, of trees, woods and people will remain Something Persists, Desire Lines and The Sisyphus Dog. He is also co-founding trustee of entwined in the future. Winchester Poetry Festival. ‘Refuge’ is from The Tree Line, an anthology of new poetry to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Charter of the Forest and the publication of the new Charter for Trees, Woods and People. The book is edited by Michael McKimm and published by Worple Press, with the support of the Woodland Trust and the Legal Sustainability Alliance. 2 | summer 2017 TREES IN ART | LEAF! Arborealist Tim Craven tells us a story of trees in art Tim Craven has worked at Southampton City Art Gallery for 37 years. Originally trained in fine art, he has always pursued his TREES IN ART own art practice and founded The Arborealists group in 2013. From earliest times, trees have been a focus of religious and cultural life for people worldwide. As the largest plant on earth, the tree, an eternal mystical emblem, has been a major source of inspiration for myth and imagination. Trees symbolise longevity, strength and pride. Tree cults, in which a single tree or a grove of trees is worshipped, have flourished at different times almost everywhere. THE CLACTON A strong strand of English landscape painting SPEARHEAD 450,000 BC derives from the mystic Arcadia of Celtic and Two ice ages ago a yew branch is made Christian pantheism. This romantic thread can be into a spearhead and lost at what is now Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. Rediscovered traced through Samuel Palmer and the Ancients, in 1911, it is one of the oldest-known the 1920s pastoral etchers, the Neo-Romantics wooden human artefacts and indicates woodworking. to the Ruralists. Traditional English pastoral landscape recalls a nostalgic, golden age and a way of life under threat. This idyllic view of rural life often celebrates the fecundity of nature with fruit-laden trees. Long-lost rural England correlates to the innocence of childhood, and during times of uncertainty and upheaval, both personal and national, it has come to the fore. The great oak tree, heart of England, was a key picturesque motif, embodying national identity.

‘As in the past, trees will WILDWOOD 5000BC Trees, trees and more trees! continue to be a subject of A dynamic patchwork of woodland and areas of rich possibility’ grassland in which the grazing of deer and auroch (wild oxen) play an important part. During the Industrial Revolution in the In the fifth millennium BC, in the late Mesolithic, wildwood is 19th century, an inevitable nostalgia for the dominated by lime in Lowland uncontaminated countryside led to an idealisation England, by oak and hazel in of rural life and the Arts and Crafts movement Wales, western England, and readily mythologised peasant culture. Such notions south Scotland, by elm and hazel in most of Ireland, and engender an inevitable melancholy, a sentiment birch and pine in the Scottish to be found in much English rural poetry and Highlands. landscape painting, for nature appears vulnerable and fragile. There have always been two kinds of Arcadia: shaggy and smooth, dark and light, a place of bucolic leisure and a place of primitive panic. Tragic landscapes often employ trees as symbols – gnarled tree stumps, overarching The Magic Apple Tree is a watercolour that Samuel Palmer made in 1830, during his ‘Visionary’ period distorted trees and ominous shadows give an (c.1826-32), an intense and innovative phase of the artist’s life when he paintied the landscapes around underlying sense of menace. Shoreham in Kent. Courtesy of Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge and Bridgeman Images. Together with Richard Wilson, Thomas Gainsborough, though primarily known for THE SWEET TRACK 3806 BC A two-kilometre trackway across portraiture, laid the essential foundations of the the conventions and status quo of bourgeois developed their art practice purely from a love of the wetlands of the Somerset British landscape school in the mid 18th century. society through their investigation of subconscious walking. Andy Goldsworthy makes (and records Levels is built out of long oak planks with pieces of hazel, alder, Like other native landscape painters he was desire, dreams and the irrational. The German- with photography) transient sculptures in situ ash, holly, willow and coppiced considerably influenced by the Dutch 17th-century born Max Ernst wrote: ‘I never forgot the from organic materials including colourful leaves, lime. Coppicing - the cutting and re-cutting of small underwood school and in later years he gained much pleasure enchantment and terror I felt when, for the first twigs and branches. shoots from the base of a tree from producing simple landscapes that often time my father led me into the forest’. As in the past, trees will continue to be a subject - is a lynchpin of traditional woodland management to this day. featured woodland. From a close observation of The dark, mysterious forest is a recurrent of rich possibility and one to which successive Neolithic woodsmanship was very nature he worked at speed with a light palette theme in German Romantic art and was one of generations of artists will inevitably return. sophisticated, crafting different sizes of different woods without employing delicate and economical brushwork. Ernst’s favourite motifs. He often used a grattage the use of metal tools. In the 19th century, Samuel Palmer employed rich technique where wet paint is scraped over a canvas and concentrated forms with vivid colour to give a when pressed down over a rough texture and Who are The Arborealists? heightened, emotive response to his subject. Palmer collage, where tree shapes were formed by narrow The Arborealists are a diverse group of artists, was strongly influenced by his friend and mentor, strips of wallpaper. from Wales to East Anglia and Sussex to William Blake, and his early work was also inspired For the Neo-Romantics, trees, upright and limbed Cornwall, who share the rich and versatile by his interest in the primitive artists of the 15th were an obvious symbolic substitute for people, subject of the tree. Tim Craven formed the and 16th centuries. Palmer’s celebrated The Magic especially for an artist looking to charge landscape group in 2013 following the critical success of Apple Tree was painted in 1830 and exemplifies the with significance even though empty of figures. The Under the Green Wood: Picturing the British artist’s mystical view of nature. landscape painter and sometime Surrealist, Paul Tree, an exhibition he co-curated with Steve Trees played their part in the advent of modernism Nash, attempted to paint trees as if they possessed Marshall and Professor Anne Anderson. The SEA HENGE 2049 BC in France but it was the Post-Impressionists who a moral goodness and wisdom derived from their group has produced two inspiring books, Under A large oak and a circle of 55 surrounding oak posts are used to recognised the subject’s potential for experimenting observations of our human follies. In fact, he even the Greenwood: Picturing the construct one of two Sea Henges with stylistic development. Both van Gogh and saw trees as people: ‘I sincerely love and worship British Tree from Constable near the North Norfolk coast (later inundated and preserved Cézanne employed trees close-up for this purpose. In trees and know they are people and wonderfully to Kurt Jackson and The by rising sea-levels). Stonehenge England the four core Camden Town Group artists beautiful people much more lovely than the Arborealists. The Arborealists is completed about this time as is the nearby Wood Henge in followed suit for the same ends at different times. majority of people one meets.’ hold regular exhibitions Amesbury, Wiltshire. Surrealism, initiated through the horrors of the From the 1970s, Land Art returned the of their work – visit First World War and Dada, was one of the most contemporary visual arts in Britain to the natural, arborealists.com to find out influential and powerful art movements of the rural world but with innovative conceptual more about them or to join 20th century. The Surrealist aim was to overthrow dimensions. Richard Long and Hamish Fulton the group. summer 2017 | 3 LEAF! | TREES IN ART Anne Anderson on veteran trees and

Dr Anne Anderson, FSA, Hon. why they are symbols of continuity Associate Professor Exeter University, is a writer, broadcaster in our busy, ever-changing world and V&A course tutor. She has lectured for many art institutions including the Art Fund, the National Trust, NADFAS and the Conservation Foundation. She has UNDER THE held several prestigious fellowships in the USA and Canada. GREENWOOD

We instinctively venerate the oak as the Heart of England. The National Trust, which now protects some of Britain’s most ancient trees, chose a sprig of oak leaves and acorns as its logo in 1936. Designed by Joseph Armitage, this symbol now expresses our desire to preserve our most beautiful countryside and historic houses. Our countryside means a lot to us; it has shaped our national character. With poet William Blake’s ‘dark Satanic Mills’ threatening not only our ‘green and pleasant land’ but also our THE GREEN MAN very way of life, the nation’s ancient trees have been 11-15TH CENTURY revered as sentinels, standing against the rising tide The Middle Ages were the heyday of the Green Man, of progress. Trees rouse strong feelings; bombarded symbol of regeneration and male by change, we respect their antiquity and strive to potency. Carvings in wood or protect them. George Pope Morris (1802–1864) stone were often incorporated demands ‘spare that tree’ as it invokes memories into sacred buildings. The intricate Romanesque and Gothic of his childhood, as well as memorialising distant architectural styles of the period ancestors; the living tree makes the past proximate, lent themselves to the creation providing tangible links to our paternal ancestors: of fantastic scupltures. Green Men were just one example of Woodman, spare that tree! the mythical beasts, demons and Touch not a single bough! other pagan symbols which began In youth it sheltered me, to be licensed, even encouraged, by church builders of the time. And I’ll protect it now. ’Twas my forefather’s hand That placed it near his cot; There, woodman, let it stand, Thy axe shall harm it not.

‘Trees rouse strong feelings; bombarded by change, we respect their antiquity and strive to protect them’

THE MAGNA CARTA & CHARTER OF THE FOREST Burnham Beeches, near Farnham Common, was English Barons force King John to sign the Magna Carta one of the very first areas of outstanding natural at Runnymede in 1215, a beauty saved for the nation by the Kyrle Society, a fundamental Charter of Liberties. This quite [possibly happened precursor of the National Trust. Even though for beneath the Ankerwycke Yew. In many of us living in a rural haven is a dream, we 1217 John's heir, Henry III, signs a Charter of the Forest at still opt to spend our weekends in the countryside, Runnymede. Clauses of the Magna energetically rambling over hill and dale or more Carta relating to the forests are sedately strolling through parkland. expanded and made into their Walter Spradbery was a watercolourist, linocut artist, poster designer and art teacher. He specialised own Charter, setting out freedoms Burnham Beeches have captured the imagination and liberties of all those living in landscapes of the countryside around London and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy. His in forest areas. It re-establishes of painters, poets and composers; it is said Felix poster designs, like this image of Burnham Beeches created in 1913, were produced mainly for London rights of access to the Royal Mendelssohn (1809-47) was inspired by the Forests for free men. Transport, and aimed at inspiring people to use public transport to escape the bustle of the city and Beeches to compose his incidental music for Puck suburbs. Courtesy of Transport for London and the London Transport Museum. and Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Sadly the beech that bore his name blew down in 1990 but the stump has been relocated to the Barbican would do well to live for a quarter of a century. stages of development, thereby offering an ideal in his honour. The poet Thomas Gray (1716–71) Many have hollowed trunks, strange twisted habit for both plants and animals. also gave his name to a Burnham Beech, having shapes and gnarled distorted bark; they exude a Although our countryside looks ‘natural’ it has immortalised a tree in his famous ‘Elegy Written in curious air of decay and exhaustion. Ironically been managed for hundreds of years. Forests, a Country Churchyard’ (1745): their longevity is due to man’s intervention, as the ‘Harbour for wild beasts’, were set aside for trees have been pollarded time and again. This is hunting while woodlands are still maintained as There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, the practice of cutting the tree a couple of metres a ‘cash crop’ or plantations grown for timber. above ground to promote fresh growth. Cut at a Ancient and veteran trees – the former usually ROBIN HOOD That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, His listless length at noontide would he stretch, height of around three metres, the new growth is ‘third-stage’ trees that are relatively old for their Nobody knows who this out of the reach of grazing animals. These new species, the latter usually ‘second-stage’ or mature 13th-century figure really And pore upon the brook that babbles by. was. Maybe his Lincoln Green shoots can be harvested every 15 to 20 years and trees – dot the countryside, while even young trees clothes stood for the Green The twisted forms of the old hollow beeches used for poles and fencing. can be just as beautiful and distinctive. Whether Man. Maybe 'Hood' meant have caught the eye of numerous artists; for many Coppicing was another way of managing growing in woods, along ancient hedgerows or 'wood', or the name 'Robin' a years His Majesty was the oldest and largest beech woodland, providing a crop on a regular basis. scattered across fields, trees have an enduring nature spirit. He has entered our culture as a free man at Burnham. Named for its size, the giant tree The tree is cut close to the ground, encouraging appeal; many have been the subject of legend and fighting over the rights to was thought to be some 600 years old when it lots of new growth at the base. Once harvested, folklore and provide a distinctive feature in the woodland. The Major Oak in was felled by the great hurricane of 1987. We lost the tree can be coppiced again to repeat the cycle. landscape. We are also aware that trees cleanse Sherwood Forest is said to many great trees that year; beeches are particularly Coppicing in rotation guarantees a continuous the air from pollutants and promote our physical have hidden Robin Hood from his enemies. vulnerable owing to their shallow root systems. supply of timber. Normally trees are coppiced on and mental well-being. We exploit trees as well as Trees are both fragile and indomitable; Burnham a seven-year cycle. Biodiversity is encouraged by revere them. We fell, coppice, pollard and gather Beeches are exceptionally old. Some have survived allowing some trees to grow; this practice, known their fruits for the table. Trees are so familiar and for over 1,000 years, when normally a beech as ‘coppice with standards’, provides trees at all yet we tend to take them for granted. 4 | summer 2017 TREES IN ART | LEAF! Rob Fraser meets one of Britain’s most prolific sculptors and land David Nash is a sculptor and draughtsman, well-known around artists to talk about woods, trees the world for his land-based and the natural environment works, especially in wood. DAVID NASH

David Nash has an intimate connection with wood, having worked with it as his chosen material for many decades. His work is globally acclaimed. To stand in his studio, or walk through woods with him where he has planted and coaxed trees to encourage particular patterns of growth, is an absolute privilege, and an opportunity to share his vision of wood as an object with almost as much life as the trees from which it comes. YOUNG MAN AMONG ROSES 1580 ‘You look at a piece,’ says David, ‘and you Trees are depicted in art as think it’s made of wood. But a tree makes that symbols conveying a hidden material. Working with wood is so special message. Here, in Hilliard's because it is something that has grown, a life miniature, a youth declares his love leaning against a tree, force that weaves earth and light into the tree’s symbol of steadfastness. He is body. It has got a time element to it, which we entwined with eglantine roses, an instinctively recognise, though not necessarily emblem of Queen Elizabeth I. consciously. When I char wood sculptures black, it changes the sense of time. You’re not seeing wood any more, you’re seeing carbon.’ Many of David’s pieces are site-specific. The ‘I love the concept that when you have an idea, it hasn’t got any molecules until you’ve incarnated it in Wooden Boulder, perhaps the most well-known, some way, by making a sketch or making a note. If you don’t do anything with it, it evaporates. You had has been moving down the Ffestiniog valley your chance, it winked at you, you need to respond.’ since 1978 when it was pushed into a stream. ‘It is entirely dependent on its engagement with the elements: the tide, the wind, the rainfall, all There’s no sign here, yet, of ash dieback, When I was first working I was just dominating contribute to where it gets placed. And it may go which is appearing across the UK. I ask David the material – I’d cut it to shape, I’d paint it, sand out of sight, which it is at the moment.’ how he feels about it. ‘I was worried, at first, but it … then I thought: why don’t you just look at We walked with David into his Ash Dome, a really, I’m working with natural forces, and this the wood, where it’s coming from? So I did. The SAMUEL PALMER 1805-1881 living sculpture of twenty-two ash trees that he is something of nature that is happening. I have wood is a partner, and it leads me.’ This visionary British landscape planted forty years ago, and has gently worked to accept it. I never thought the Wooden Boulder painter is now recognised as with. ‘A tree grows with the energy, the nutrients, would get to sea in my life time, or even into the This interview with a leading figure in British the light, and all the natural circumstances it estuary, but it did. And the Ash Dome, I didn’t David Nash is from The Romanticism. During his lifetime his work was little known outside needs, of that particular place. I was looking know whether it would get to the 21st century. I Long View, a new book his circle. In his youth he formed for a way to have a sculpture outside that was took a photograph of it on the last afternoon of of photography, prose The Ancients, a group who were genuinely of where it was sited. The dome shape 1999 and another from the same space, the next and poetry reflecting on among the first English artists to came from the foothills around, and there’s a morning, like its graduation photograph. They trees across Cumbria, in dream of getting back to nature. After his death, his work was simple spiritual geometry of the circle and of the are exactly the same! It doesn’t care, does it?’ all seasons, all weathers, rediscovered, inspiring artists in dome, and of the inside-outside. I wanted to grow David realised early in his career that wood night and day. For the 1920s and 30s such as Eric a space, a simple space. And it’s a collaboration: was right for him. ‘I wanted a material which further information visit Ravilious and Graham Sutherland. the Ash Dome is a token of working with nature.’ would inform the work or be a partner in it. thelongview.today

On the campaign trail: Fiona leaves, fall of acorns or straining of branches in pollard, a Hungarian plane tree and the ultimate Stafford calls an arboreal election a storm. This is the oak of all oaks in Sherwood, winner, an oak growing in the middle of a football the grand patriarch of the woods. It’s no surprise pitch in Estonia. that in the first Tree of the Year competition to be Today, the old tree is now so well propped and held in Britain, in 2014, the Major Oak was voted protected that the biggest threats are also the VOTE FOR TREES! England’s favourite tree. smallest: the two-spotted oak buprestid beetle Although the Major Oak saw off stiff and the oak processionary moth. The beetles prey The vast green canopies of sturdy oak trees in competition from such venerable rivals as on trees afflicted with oak dieback, but can also COMMONS PRESERVATION 1850 Sherwood Forest, thick with leaves and birdsong, the ancient Ankerwyke Yew at Runnymede spread acute oak decline, which causes weeping The Lord of the Manor of Loughton encloses 1,000 acres of Epping quickly blot out most traces of the modern and Newton’s Apple Tree at Woolsthorpe in wounds in the bark and eventual death. The little Forest, leaving just nine acres for world. The limbs of some of these stout veterans Lincolnshire to win, it did not fare quite so well in brown moths, on the other hand, munch their way recreation of the villagers. Thomas are twisted, while their once straight trunks the European finals the following spring. Here the through thick clusters of foliage to leave even the Willingale, a labourer, leads a bear the scars of persistent campaigns by the Major Oak came sixth in the polls, losing out to mightiest oaks stripped bare. revolt and lops hornbeam pollards for firewood in the traditional wind and weather. Some have been blasted by a Czech pine tree, a Polish oak, a Spanish poplar manner. The Willingale family are lightning, leaving boughs black as the masts of Tree of the Year sentenced to hard labour but the tall ships amid the rippling waves of green. They Commons Preservation Society takes stand becalmed, as if in waiting. The stately From mighty oaks to street trees, do you up their cause and by 1851 the Lords of the Forest are ordered congregation of old trees is enough to steady even have a tree with an interesting story or one by Courts to remove fences. They the youngest visitors for their encounter with the that is special to you and your community? refuse and in 1879 5,000 people most awe-inspiring of them all: the Major Oak. The Woodland Trust is offering up to £1,000 turn up to protest by exercising This arboreal colossus holds court in a huge in tree care awards to the most successful their rights. Two years later Queen Victoria is compelled to declare clearing of its own. A circular fence keeps visitors trees. Nominations are open until 30 July: the forest open to the public at a respectful distance, from where they gaze woodlandtrust.org.uk/treeoftheyear 'without let or hindrance'. expectantly, as if hoping for an audience with a tree once known as the Queen Oak. So weighty are the outstretched branches that they rest on a The Major Oak was no stranger to fame when Fiona Stafford is Professor of series of tall, steel poles and taut wires. It looks it topped the national poll in 2014. Named after English Language and Literature Major Hayman Rooke, who published sketches at the University of Oxford. almost like the landing craft of a great green- She recently published The headed alien that’s descending from outer space, of the forest in his book, Remarkable Oaks in Long, Long Life of Trees (Yale except the corrugated trunk is so deeply rooted the Park at Welbeck, in 1790, the tree has been University Press). that any real movement is limited to the quiver of attracting visitors for at least two centuries. summer 2017 | 5

SUSTAINABILITY * ACCESS FOR EVERYONE * CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE ARTIST RESIDENCY #1 * ASSEMBLE * LOG BOOK * LINCOLN | LEAF!

Assemble reveal an idea for a new project that celebrates the Charter of the Forest and tells the story of wood’s versatility LOG BOOK

As the first legal document to protect common rights to economic use of the woodlands, the Charter of the Forest was formative in defining our cultural relationship to the landscape. But what do these rights mean today and what is our relationship with trees and woods in the 21st century? assemble are a Turner- prize-winning collective of Assemble’s work is always interested in the 15 architects whose work relationships between material, economy, culture addresses the relationship and place. For our project, Log Book, we have between people and the built environment. drawn inspiration from bodgers – traditional They take a hands-on, craftsmen living and working with wood – whose collaborative approach. tools, products and working quarters were all While their work usually composed of the same material. With the spirit The Charter of the Forest of 1217 (Carta de Foresta) re-established rights of access to the royal forest includes design it rarely for free men that had been eroded since the William the Conqueror. starts or ends there, often of resourcefulness and spontaneity embodied by employing a range of ways bodgers, we are creating a series of ‘arrangements’ to make spaces that enable in wood, using timber in various forms and in ways that wood is reimagined at each installation, independence, creativity different locations in the UK. and express the structural properties of wood, and difference. Assemble Get involved in the project started working together The first installation of Log Book will take place evolving from logs to planks, split firewood Log Book will travel to other locations informally in 2009, and at the end of October inside the Chapter House through to shavings and finally paper for delivered their first project, around the UK after its launch at the of Lincoln Cathedral. Ahead of this, a grassroots publication about the project. the Cineroleum in 2010. Chapter House at Lincoln Cathedral during campaign is being run by Common Ground Once the first installation is over, the structure the Frequency Festival (October 20–29). and the Frequency Festival through the summer, will be deconstructed before being used again to Assemble would love you to take part in their encouraging people in Lincoln to share their tree create a different installation at a new site, where work, so if you live in or around Lincoln stories – these will be digitally recorded and played it will appear as something different from the first. and have something to say about trees – a from speakers placed inside the Chapter House. This process of deconstruction and reconstruction story, a memory, a poem, an observation, Visitors to the finished installation will therefore will reflect the character of each subsequent a rant – or if you would like to invite Log experience a physical artwork that speaks both location, creating a chronology of simple structures Book to your community, please get in touch: literally and metaphorically about our historic, and objects which show us the utility of wood. commonground.org.uk/charter-art social, economic and spiritual relationship with Over time, as the Log Book project moves from trees and woods. place to place, more and more tree stories will be By looking closely at traditional and collected from people around the UK, forming a The Chapter House at Lincoln Cathedral (left) will be the setting for Assemble’s Log contemporary silviculture – the growing and growing archive of our relationship between trees, Book. The project is inspired by the makeshift life of bodgers (right) and the tools cultivation of trees – we will experiment with the woods and people in 2017. they used, including the shave horse (image strip below) for green wood work.

SUSTAINABILITY * ACCESS FOR EVERYONE * CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE ARTIST RESIDENCY #1 * ASSEMBLE * LOG BOOK * LINCOLN | 7 LEAF! | ARTIST RESIDENCY #2 * ALEC FINLAY * A WOLF AMONG WOLVES * SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS PLANTING FOR THE FUTURE * ACCESS FOR EVERYONE * CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE * NATURAL HEALTH BENEFITS

Alec Finlay on mapping ecologies in the Scottish Highlands with words, trees and wolves CRY WOLF

there is another wood and it is this one! there is another wolf and it is this one! there is another world and it is this one!

alec finlay was born in trust a deer path over a human path Scotland in 1966. He is an artist and poet whose work when deer can be among trees they will, but that crosses over a range of media doesn’t stop them eating seedlings and forms, and considers how we as a culture, or cultures, the deeper the snow lies the more the wolf thrives relate to landscape. Finlay has published over forty books the lawless are reborn as wolves and won six Scottish Design the caledonian forest: an extent of woodland Awards, including two Grand Prix Awards (2001, 2015). kept under peat Recent publications include minnmouth, A Variety of species should be indigenous for, as Tolkein said, Cultures, ebban an’ flowan ‘the tree grows best in the land of its sires’ and a better tale to tell. The poem and photograph featured in this article is one of Alec’s I am undertaking an artist residency in two ‘poem labels’ (photographed pinewoods, at Dundreggan, Mar Lodge and by Mhairi Law) and will be Invercauld Estate. Using this research, I will part of his forthcoming book, a reflect on innovative approaches to pinewood man among men a wolf among wolves, documenting his regeneration in the Scottish Highlands – in Highland residencies. particular Project Wolf, pioneered by Trees for Life at Dundreggan. Here, I have been following ‘human wolf packs’, consisting of three people per pack, who, through howling their presence on the hill, are successfully warding off deer from vulnerable seedlings. I hadn’t intended on an artistic survey of approaches to woodland renewal, but I fell in love with the imagination and commitment of the people making these projects happen, and their vision for a future that can be measured in the slow growth of a pine grown straight and tall at altitude. What I make will be an account of arboriculture. It will also explore what these practices tell us about our imagination, society and politics, and how we relate to earth-others. Whatever Scotland is becoming – and that seems to change week by week – it is becoming somewhere new, and this process can be seen in the changing attitudes to land ownership, lairdism, wild nature, Gaelic culture, walking, and what I term contemporary ‘transhumance’, as much as it can in the debating chamber at Holyrood. The lessons being learnt in the Highland wild labs are relevant for the British Isles and further afield. My aim is to reflect on these avant-garde ecological practices for an era of climate crisis – not a review of the past, but a snapshot of the present, and sketch of possible futures, made from Top left: Map showing new exclosures and regeneration areas. Top right: Moorland Management Group the inside of the debate. It is necessary to challenge meeting at Invercauld Estate, photographed by Kate MacAllan. the economies of what I term The Crazes – deer Centre left: ‘Para Camp’ a shelter used by the humandwolf pack at Dundreggan, photographed by stalking and driven grouse. Although it is not for Mhairi Law. Centre right: Place-names emerge through older maps, like this by George G. MacKay’s of me to decide the scientific and ethical rights and ‘Glenmoriston’, 1849. wrongs, but rather to catch the arguments that are Bottom left: ‘OUR TOTEM / pine’: Dundreggan. Bottom right: Wooden poem blocks by Alec Finlay, in the air and juggle them into a pattern. based on his residency in the Scottish Highlands. The rise of cultural nationalism and agitation of the Land Reform movement, in what I teasingly refer to as The Wightman Era, are being change that is missing from these defining factors, it sub-Arctic tundra, which makes it an interesting felt in policy on the hill, conversations in the pub, but in that respect The Highlands reflects the rest location to be in residence. and debates in the Wee Parliament. The result of the British Isles. Any account of ecology in the Highlands must isn’t a straightforward class conflict, a stand-off The rise of the Caledonian pinewood and native also touch on history and The Clearances. I have between tweeds and kagouls; rather, in the past woodland regeneration movement has elected a sketched the effect that crofters and lairds had on decade, there has been a spurt of hybrid practices, rival – or complementary – totem to the antlered the environment, and detailed the traditions of as some sporting estates pioneer attempts to stag. I’m always mindful of the motto Jim Crumley those warring tribes, deer-lovers and tree-lovers, balance the contradictory impulses of guns and passed on: ‘deer and trees belong together’. New through a survey of place-names – pragmatic ecology, and some wildlife charities attempt to strategies for land management are being trialed markers, ecopoetic mappings and totemic symbols. combine traditional stalking with ecological by landed estates and membership organisations I hope the outcome of my residency will help sustainability. Priorities differ according to the – bodies such as John Muir Trust, the Woodland inspire other communities and organisations to wishes of the owners, capacity of the land and Trust, Trees for Life and RSPB – which hold vast adopt and translate the ideas emerging here in the economic possibilities – too often it is climate tracts of land. Mar Lodge is 72,500 acres, some of Highlands into other places, other ecologies.

8 | ARTIST RESIDENCY #2 * ALEC FINLAY * A WOLF AMONG WOLVES * SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS PLANTING FOR THE FUTURE * ACCESS FOR EVERYONE * CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE * NATURAL HEALTH BENEFITS CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE * THRIVING HABITATS ARTIST RESIDENCY #3 * KURT JACKSON * THE THORN * CORNWALL | LEAF!

Kurt Jackson tells us why a lonesome thorn tree near his home has inspired a new art project THE THORN

On the edge, the hedge. Just where the smallest, wildest, most unused field reaches to the open expanses of the unenclosed stretch of heather moor, there is a small stunted hawthorn tree. As far as trees go it’s not the most impressive specimen. It’s low, almost bonsaied in its form; leaning or rather pointing into the east, swept and blown from the west, from the prevailing winds off the Atlantic cliffs; maybe twenty fields away downhill. A crashing wave of branch and stick. A crow’s nest lies in the upper branches, now full of vivid green grass – the only place to nest nearby. Under the dark mass of sticks and twigs the thorn trunks emerge from between the granite of the hedge, itself studded by the discs of pennywort, the odd primrose and clumps of foxglove leaves.

‘This Cornish hawthorn is an almanac of a very small piece of the world.’

This Cornish individual is one of the very few trees growing in this landscape. Gaze across the panorama, follow the skyline and you can find a Monterey pine next to the Potter’s Cottage across the moor, and one other similar hawthorn near Frog Pond three fields away, but that’s it. There is another hawthorn a dozen fields away and this is now shielded inside a swathe of woodland planted by our family with the support of the Woodland Trust and the council – a rapidly maturing bluebell wood complete with badgers, deer and buzzards. And so my interest has been drawn to this survivor – to draw and paint this ancient spearn (in the Kernewek language) that hugs the hedge, hunkering down from those gales, searching out the nutrients in these poor acid soils and avoiding the nibbling of the rabbits and the wild shaggy moorland cattle. Historians tell us this moor was Through the seasons: Kurt Jackson began sketching the thorn tree in February, at the end of winter, and under tree cover until the Neolithic folk chose to will return to the same place every season, creating a mixed media work on wood to express the tree clear it; a Mesolithic hunter’s flint chippings were through the year. The first piece is calledThe thorn in winter from the south side. A wren sings to me, found an arrow’s distance from the foot of this the wind blows under a weak winter sun and the thorn shivers. thorn and a low almost invisible tumulus from another age still lies nearby. The area is littered with ritual sites of the Neolithic and late Bronze Age for grazing, stick gathering and turf cutting into and berries; this microcosm of tree. – a stone circle, holed stones, cists and standing recent memory. I am drawing and painting and sculpting this stones. This was an important area, widely used by A pile of black decomposing silage plastic sinks individual – capturing these changes, the stages, prehistoric peoples, and remained common land into and under the brambles next to a rusting holed her seasonal ways. I will spend time next to this tin bath at the foot of the thorn. The surrounding tree on her hedge, and share her seasons. I will briars have tried to snake up into the lower watch, see, smell and hear her, spot the life in and branches, as if to tie the tree down and stabilise it. around her: the other plants and animals that live Through all this the thorn survived, its age in, on and around her. I will describe and celebrate unknown. this character in paint, sculpture and poetry. This Recent research suggests that trees of this Cornish hawthorn is an almanac of a very small kurt jackson is an artist who nature in the West Cornwall are often very ancient piece of the world. embraces a range of materials or at least the rootstock is; maybe even older than These hawthorns need to be appreciated as and techniques to celebrate the stone hedges supporting them. It grows on a veterans, survivors, beautiful creatures in their own the natural environment. boundary, was the hedge built to include the tree right that also support an array of life. They lend He was born in Blandford, Dorset, and graduated from St – like a large unmoveable rock is incorporated into themselves to the imagination with their quirky Peter’s College, Oxford, with a wall – or did it sprout from some bird-dropped shapes and marginal positions – as initiators of a degree in Zoology. He has seed, a haw wedged between the granite toppers? stories, folk tales and poetry. been Artist in Residence on the This lonesome tree follows her ancestral ways We can use them in school lessons and Greenpeace ship Esperanza, the Eden Project and at the although no neighbours witness or share her workshops – whether we are discussing ecology Glastonbury Festival since seasonal dress codes. These fresh green arrow or the attachment to the land, history, geography 1999. He lives in St Just, shaped leaves appear in the spring followed by the or just looking at the aesthetics and lie of the land. Penwith, in Cornwall with pungent May blossoms; the haws develop, turning Maybe we can harvest her berries to create another his family. The photograph For the hawthorn study, Kurt Jackson will also above of Kurt sketching the pillar-box scarlet to remain once the leaves blow population – siblings that could be part of new observe the life flourishing below its branches, like hawthorn was taken by his away for its winter display. Only an armful of growth, replacing the willow, hazel and oak still to this December Primrose made by the artist in 2014. son, Seth Jackson. branches, only a scattering of flowers and leaves be found preserved in the peat below.

CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE * THRIVING HABITATS ARTIST RESIDENCY #3 * KURT JACKSON * THE THORN * CORNWALL | 9 TREE TRAILS traces a 200-year-old story of art and heritage through trees and celebrates the cultural history we share with our arboreal neighbours. The artworks featured on the map are either on permanent display or in national collections across Wales, Scotland, England and Ireland – a reminder, too, of the way ideas and people move across borders to weave a shared history. Trees and woods are both the frame within which the human drama unfolds and the material of choice for the artwork itself. Across the British Isles, from Samuel Palmer’s visions of The Magic Apple Tree (1830), the grand views of Wales in the paintings of Richard Wilson, to the moorland paintings of John William Inchbold, David Hockney’s industrial scenes of Bolton, Andy Goldsworthy’s, Hanging Trees (2007), David Nash’s Habitat (2015) and Katie Patterson's Hollow (2015), Common Ground’s Tree Trails maps the different places and spaces – imagined and real – that we all cohabit with trees. Celebrating the 800th anniversary of the Charter of the Forest, Tree Trails was created for the Tree Charter by Common Ground and illustrated by Adam Dant. The Tree Charter recognises and protects the cultural impact of trees, and Tree Trails gives us a way into this rich seam of arboreal culture wherever we live in the UK. For more information about the Tree Charter campaign and for details of temporary exhibitions and events across the country to mark this landmark year for trees and woods, visit treecharter.uk

ADAM DANT was born in Cambridge and attended the Liverpool School of Art and later the Royal College of Art. In 2002, he received the Jerwood Drawing Prize and was selected as the official artist to document the UK General Election in 2015. His dense, elaborate narrative drawings provide a unique insight into the complexities of social, cultural and political life. He lives in London with his family.

LEAF! | ARTIST RESIDENCY #4 * CHRISTINE MACKEY * GRAFTING HISTORIES * BELFAST ACCESS FOR EVERYONE * CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE * ADDRESSING THREATS TO TREES

Christine Mackey explores the legacy of a number of woods in Northern Ireland planted to celebrate the Millenium IT IS TO THEM WE JOURNEY

christine mackey is based at It is now nearly 17 years since these woods the Leitrim Sculpture Centre and works across a range of (approximately 51) were planted through the practices and sites of interest. Woodland Trust’s ‘Woods on your Doorstep’ The evolving projects, public programme, supported by the Millennium engagements, publications and exhibitions are meticulously Commission. I see this as an opportunity to researched. She pursues a re-visit, re-engage and re-activate these woods narrative structure based on creatively. How the work emerges will be an assemblage of key research speculative for now. The footwork will be honed material, sites of interest While everything in the surrounding landscape changes, a bench remains still. What can the bench as to place, people will be met, stories collected, and the active and creative an artefact tell us about ourselves and our relationship with nature? Christine Mackey’s research-based walks made, images archived. involvement of other voices. practice evolves from an interest in exploring the relationship between people and their environments, with Her work embeds a series of Last month I visited Friends of Belvoir Wood, artworks in different mediums emerging out of her journey through a particular place. sensitive responses in relation on the outskirts of South Belfast, along the to site, agency and ecology. eastern bank of the River Lagan. This is but one of the 15 sites that I will transect and link these bench-sites and the geographical locations, perhaps the bench they like to sit on. with the other woods across Northern Ireland. a map begins to emerge based on the whereabouts Gathering up this material, enriched with I will explore on foot more of the different of theses varied bench-marks. These can be used what I discover in the archive at Bangor, I will historical processes that have shaped these woods, as points of reference and as framing devices in create a series of multi-media works that ‘map’ uncovering the social and physical impacts the woods. these layers and patterns of social, historical and these changes have had upon the local human Mindful of the histories of these varying ecological life in the woods. communities and the communities of flora and woodlands, I would like to find out how the local Through my walks in these young woods, fauna unique to each part of the woodlands. communities actively use the different places what might the bench-marks express about the After recently spending time at the Woodland today, inviting them to share both their personal patterns that have shaped and are still shaping the Trust office in Bangor, searching through the and communal experiences of being in their landscape? How do human experiences revolve archives built around these woods, what strikes woods. I will take audio and visual documentary around them as the landscape changes? What do me is the pattern beginning to emerge of the recordings of these experiences through informal these different locations reveal about our own various wooden benches distributed on site, conversations with visitors to the wood and creative imaginings of the relationship between all and how they commanded a view in and of the people who live nearby, who tell me about living organisms and what will emerge thinking landscape. In thinking about the complexity of their favourite walk, tree, place in the wood, or and acting in the world as a forest of trees?

Harriet Fraser on elemental meetings of root, rock and air in the mountains and lakes of Cumbria THE LONG VIEW

It wasn’t their age or size that lured us in. We selected the seven trees of The Long View for the way they so beautifully ‘fit’ their individual spaces, spread like a constellation among the mountains rob and harriet fraser work in collaboration as and lakes of Cumbria. And because they have somewhere-nowhere. They thrived despite challenges including rough, steep highlight the beauty of ground, exposure to fierce weather, and grazing nature and the benefits of pressures. being outdoors and building connections between We have spent days and nights with these seven people and nature. In their trees, in all weathers, alone and in company of collaboration, Rob shoots on others. We’ve walked between them, slept with digital cameras and physical them in midsummer and midwinter. The more time film with a large format camera. Harriet’s writing we spend with them, the more we study them, and Rob hard at work marking out the site of one of the treefolds before site works begins. includes documentary, prose each time we introduce them to others, they seem and poetry, and she frequently more special. They’ve seldom been remarked on takes poetry away from the before. They are sentinels that invite a pause, instil arise when decisions are rooted in human need As a culmination of The Long View, we will page by placing it in the land. The Frasers are both fellows of wonder, and always prompt conversations. without adequate appreciation of environmental build a series of drystone ‘folds’ in Cumbria which the Royal Geographical Society Our work draws us to notice things closely, impact. Alongside this view, because it isn’t all will embrace new trees, offering a space for people and are patrons of Friends of and slowly – Rob through photography, myself doom and gloom, we have used our crafts to to sit and pause with the trees, and revisit them the Lake District. They exhibit through writing. As an addition to these, our emphasise beauty and share the thrill we feel when over the years. Each ‘treefold’ will contain some their work across the UK and will be showing images, poetry installations at each of the seven trees have pulled we walk to, and rest with, these trees. They really stones carved with Harriet’s poetry – the poem can and installations from The us in yet more deeply. Our designs have drawn are stunning. be read individually or as one long poem threading Long View at Grizedale Forest, on our own experiences and on what we’ve learnt Trees matter, and that means every tree, its way across the landscape. Cumbria, until 31 August. from people who know their stuff about trees and including outliers and the craggy loners (with The drystone treefolds will be made with the natural and cultural history of the land. 50 per cent of the UK’s trees dwelling outside local stone by a master waller, using vernacular We have applied the colours to the trees of woodlands these can’t be overlooked). So techniques that date back for more than a without following the natural order. In celebrating the seven lone trees has been at the thousand years. Each finished fold will be an fragmenting the rainbow there is a suggestion heart of our work, and has led us to ask questions. invitation to consider ordinary trees that are of the confusion in climate, a seeming jumble of What part do humans play in shaping landscapes? part of our landscapes, and the importance of seasons in the UK, and the destruction that can Are we prepared to stand up for them? celebrating and protecting them.

12 | ARTIST RESIDENCY #5 * HARRIET & ROB FRASER * TREEFOLDS * CUMBRIA PLANTING FOR THE FUTURE * ACCESS FOR EVERYONE * CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE * NATURAL HEALTH BENEFITS * PROTECTING TREES THRIVING FORESTRY * PLANTING FOR THE FUTURE * ACCESS FOR EVERYONE * CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE * THRIVING HABITATS ARTIST RESIDENCY #6 * OWEN GRIFFITHS * TŶ UNNOS * CARMARTHENSHIRE | LEAF!

Owen Griffiths invites you to visit him during his residency at the National Botanic Garden of Wales TŶ UNNOS

Magna Carta acknowledged the widow’s ‘estovers in the common’ (fuel) while its companion, the Charter of the Forest, protected pannage (pig’s food). The lexicon of the agrarian commons – turbary, piscary, herbage, etc. – is obscure, forgotten, local or arcane. Much communing is durable to the extent it is invisible. From Stop Thief! The Commons, Enclosures and Resistance by Peter Linebaugh

Trees are key to our survival. They came before us and we have used, abused and loved them for thousands of years. They have provided our sustenance, food, shelter, medicine and the air we breathe. They are our history and our future. Yet we take them for granted. From In a Nutshell by Common Ground

Ideas start with words, and I am fascinated by words from the Charter of the Forest and certain sentences from books like Common Ground’s Arboreal and In a Nutshell, and writers like Peter Linebaugh. Words resonate and remind us of the language and thinking that was once more rooted to the landscape. Although some of these phrases, place-names and words are used today, more or less without Planting action: Owen Griffiths and Shimabuku duringVetch Veg in Swansea, 2011–12. A Welsh heritage apple tree is being planted into gallery packing cases, photographed by Eva Bartusek. thinking about them, it is fascinating to think about the language passed down and borrowed from previous generations who worked with the be invited to take part in this event, as actors. vernacular of the gardens. land and with trees. Later this year, this collaborative performance In Wales there is a tradition of tŷ unnos (one- I would like these words and ideas to flow out will become the focal point of a large community night house), which dates back several hundred of books and history to the present, becoming gathering at the Botanic Garden, which at the years and suggests that if you were able to build banners, text works or simple visual interruptions a house on common land, with a fire smoking out around the National Botanic Garden of Wales from the chimney, the land was then rightfully in the Towy Valley, Carmarthenshire. As ‘What relevance does the yours. Most tai unnos were originally made of engagement tools with local communities and turf and soil, with a roughly thatched roof. Once visitors to the Botanic Garden, these words will Charter of the Forest have built, these walls were often replaced with other help me ask: what relevance does the Charter of for people today?’ local materials, like clay, timber and stone. the Forest have for people today? In particular, The idea of a one-night house appears what does it say about social disconnection, land throughout the world, mostly as folklore but owen griffiths is an mfa use and privatisation in the 21st century? same time as expressing something about the trees sometimes in customary and even statutory graduate of the School of For the first phase of the residency I will be and surrounding landscape, will also be rooted law. The dramatic potential and symbolism Walls and Space at the Royal moving to the Botanic Garden in my caravan, to contemporary political issues of land and of a community getting together for this Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In 2016 he was awarded which will serve as an artist studio and sustainability. purpose is intriguing, even if it is practically Cultural Ambassador for alternative space where people will be invited to From a platform, perhaps built up in the trees, challenging or impossible. It is in the spirit of Wales and 2014 was a British have a brew of tea and share ideas and stories the audience will at first sit and enjoy the show, tŷ unnos, in particular how urgency can create Council Fellow. His work is with each other. hearing a narrative about life, work and trees. material invention and the need for community connected to redeveloping a new sense of urban During this time I will meet volunteers, They will then be invited into the performance, involvement, that our structure will become vernacular, community and staff who work there, and visitors who use the asked to carry pieces of timber towards another a temporary space for people to gather at the collaboratively-led research garden regularly. All of these people will become location in the Botanic Garden, where a new, Botanic Garden, and perhaps create a new focusing on issues of land, potential collaborators in the residency – it is temporary community space with be created for conversation about how communities should food, social justice and civic design. In 2012 he established their stories and ideas which will be woven into social gatherings and educational workshops. interact with the landscape and use the Garden in Vetch Veg, an edible land a performance that will be staged at the Botanic This temporary community structure will be built years to come. project in Swansea as part Garden, and some of the people I meet will also with materials from the surrounding land – the of Adain Avion, Cultural Olympiad, Wales. Current and Tŷ unnos working drawings by Owen Griffiths. ongoing collaborative partners and land project locations include housing associations, HM Prison services, Common Ground, National Museum Wales and the National Botanic Garden of Wales. He is currently the lead artist on the Trebanog project for Artes Mundi, an ambitious project developing a disused building as a new school for social learning. He works and lives in Swansea and is driven by the potential of small nations as authors of big changes.

THRIVING FORESTRY * PLANTING FOR THE FUTURE * ACCESS FOR EVERYONE * CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE * THRIVING HABITATS ARTIST RESIDENCY #6 * OWEN GRIFFITHS * TŶ UNNOS * CARMARTHENSHIRE | 13 LEAF! | ARTIST RESIDENCY #7 * CLEMENTINE BLAKEMORE * BOARDWALK & SHELTER * DORSET THRIVING FORESTRY * SUSTAINABILITY * ACCESS FOR EVERYONE * CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE * THRIVING HABITATS

clementine blakemore is an architectural designer with an interest in the relationship between design, making and place. Her London-based practice recently completed a pavilion for the new Design Museum and she regularly leads design/build workshops, and has taught on the Architectural Association’s Visiting School programme. She was a founding partner of Visualisation of the boardwalk and outdoor community space being created by Clementine Blakemore. the collective WORKSHOP architecture, completing two educational buildings in India. She has a background in Clementine Blakemore explains the project, I have been meeting the community who alongside a haymaking festival. In this way, sculpture and film, and was thinking behind her residency at the live and work around the Kingcombe Centre, local education and exchange will be a core part of the educated at the University of conservationists, site wardens, teachers, farmers, project – with the definition of ‘localness’ being Oxford, the Rural Studio, the Kingcombe Centre, Dorset and the groups of amazing Dorset Wildlife Trust informed by the cultures and experiences of a Architectural Association and the Royal College of Art. volunteers who have been helping dismantle the old range of different people. boardwalk and dig foundations for the new one. The main challenge (unsurprisingly!) is BOARDWALK The final design was developed with the financial. Sculptural building projects, however London-based engineers Structure Workshop, and small, end up incurring significant costs. Which New Vernaculars is a collaborative research the plan is to assemble the structure with a small is why it is wonderful to have the support of the project initiated by Common Ground which seeks group of art and design students from around Woodland Trust, who are not only co-funding this to explore ways in which contemporary forms the world. They will all arrive in Dorset this residency project but also supplying additional

notes:

- Do not scale drawings - All dimensions in mm - Errors to be reported immediately to the Designer - To be read in conjunction with all the relevant Designers'of and Engineers' drawingsarchitecture and design can emerge through July to take part in a two-week-long workshop timber from a woodland that they manage in the - All dimensions to be checked and verified on site before proceeding - Structure shown is indicative only; for structural layouts / details refer to Engineers' drawingsa meaningful engagement with the landscape, based at the Architectural Associations’s rural Bovey Valley, Devon.

revisions A Concept 20th April 2017 B cultureDesign Development 15th May 2017 and people of a particular locality. The finished structure will be used by people Through a series of projects, developed over from all walks of life who visit the Kingcombe a number of years in partnership with local ‘The finished structure will Centre from across the UK and Dorset, either to communities, artists and craftspeople, the aim is be used by people from all participate in environmental activities that run to produce a collection of small buildings which throughout the year or simply to have a cup of

C · B · A Clementine Blakemore Architecture

157 Middleton Road Londontest E8 4LL both innovative design ideas and methods of tea and cake at the café. The structure will also www.clementineblakemore.com walks of life.’

[email protected] Clementine Blakemore Architecture 07580193709 ©

project Kingcombe Center Boardwalk (004_KCB) client construction.The Kingcombe Center At the centre of each project will be provide an outdoor classroom for nearby primary Lower Kingcombe Dorset DT2 0EQ

drawing title Proposed Plan

scale 1:50 at A3 revision anB Design Developmentinterest in locally sourced skills and materials, campus at Hooke Park, just three miles away from schools and a space for a regular group of visitors date 15th May 2017 drawing alongsideno. the accommodation of wildlife. Kingcombe and also on the River Hooke. undergoing drug and alcohol addiction therapy.

notes:

For- Do notthe scale drawings first two years of the project, I will be Most of the timber for the new structure will While this project is deeply rooted in Dorset, - All dimensions in mm - Errors to be reported immediately to the Designer - To be read in conjunction with all the relevant helpingDesigners' Common and Engineers' drawings Ground explore these ideas come from Hooke Park, where the students also we hope it will become a model for similar - All dimensions to be checked and verified on site before proceeding - Structure shown is indicative only; for structural layouts / details refer to Engineers' in Westdrawings Dorset, at the beautiful and very special spend the first week fabricating the structure approaches to architecture and artist residencies landscapes around Kingcombe. In partnership and designing smaller elements of the project. in rural and urban areas, both within the UK and with the Architectural Association and the The assembly will then take place on site in the revisions abroad. What we learn during this Kingcombe A Concept 20th April 2017

B Design Development 15th May 2017 DorsetC WildlifeDesign Development 25th MayTrust, 2017 the aim is to reconstruct second week and involve a number of public project will feed into ongoing New Vernacular a boardwalk and create a new outdoor learning events at Kingcombe, such as ‘find and make’ projects, enabling more artists, architects and space at the Kingcombe Environmental Centre, a creative workshops with local primary school students to engage holistically in a locality, ‘pavilion’, which will also be the only place in West children, visits from nearby secondarynotes: schools, generating contemporary vernacular design that - Do not scale drawings - All dimensions in mm Dorset to have disability access to the River Hooke. art and architecture lectures, and- aErrors ‘topping to be reported immediately to the absorbs the needs of local people and wildlife, and Designer - To be read in conjunction with all the relevant In the research and development phase of the out’ celebration that will take placeDesigners' on and JulyEngineers' drawings22 expresses the distinctiveness of a landscape. - All dimensions to be checked and verified on site before proceeding - Structure shown is indicative only; for structural layouts / details refer to Engineers' Left: Recently arrived from the Woodland Trust’s Pullabrook wood in Devon, the Douglasdrawings fir being milled at Hooke Park, Dorset, by Edward Coe. Right: Volunteers preparing the Kingcombe site for the new boardwalk and pavilion. notes:

- Do not scale drawings - All dimensions in mm C · B · A - Errors to be reported immediately to the Clementine Blakemore Architecture Designer - To be read in conjunction with all the relevant Designers' and Engineers' drawings 157 Middleton Road - All dimensions to be checked and verified on site before proceeding London E8 4LL - Structure shown is indicative only; for www.clementineblakemore.com structural layouts / details refer to Engineers' drawings revisions [email protected] Clementine Blakemore Architecture 07580193709 A Concept 20th April 2017 ©

project Kingcombe Center Boardwalk (004_KCB) B Design Development 15th May 2017

client The Kingcombe Center Lower Kingcombe revisions C Design Development 25th May 2017 Dorset DT2 0EQ A Concept 20th April 2017

B Design Development 15th May 2017

drawing title Proposed Elevation C Design Development 25th May 2017

scale 1:50 at A3

revision C Design Development

date 25th May 2017

drawing no.

C · B · A Clementine Blakemore Architecture

157 Middleton Road London E8 4LL www.clementineblakemore.com

[email protected] Clementine Blakemore Architecture 07580193709 ©

project Kingcombe Center Boardwalk (004_KCB)

client The Kingcombe Center Lower Kingcombe Dorset DT2 0EQ

drawing title Proposed Elevation

scale 1:50 at A3

revision C Design Development

date 25th May 2017

drawing no.

C · B · A Clementine Blakemore Architecture

157 Middleton Road ARTIST RESIDENCY #7 * CLEMENTINE BLAKEMORE * BOARDWALK & SHELTER * DORSET THRIVING FORESTRY * SUSTAINABILITYLondon E8 4LL * ACCESS FOR EVERYONE * CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE * THRIVING HABITATS 14 | www.clementineblakemore.com

[email protected] Clementine Blakemore Architecture 07580193709 ©

project Kingcombe Center Boardwalk (004_KCB)

client The Kingcombe Center Lower Kingcombe Dorset DT2 0EQ

drawing title Proposed Elevation

scale 1:50 at A3

revision C Design Development

date 25th May 2017

drawing no. ACCESS FOR EVERYONE * CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE ARTIST RESIDENCY #8 * JAMES WEBB * SUPERNATURE * YORKSHIRE | LEAF!

james webb’s work, framed in large-scale installations in galleries, or as unannounced interventions in public spaces, often makes use of ellipsis and displacement to explore the nature of belief and communication in our contemporary world. He has presented his work around the world at institutions such as Wanås Konst in Sweden, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Darat al Funun in Amman, Jordan, as well as on major international exhibitions such as the Biennials of Sharjah, Habana, Venice, Marrakech, d’Art Contemporain de Lyon and the Melbourne International Arts Festival. He lives and works in Cape Town.

‘What would we hear if we could understand the language of trees? What would they tell us?’ James Webb with the There’s No Place Called Home installation at Folkets Park in 2016, photographed by Ricard Estay.

Pioneer of sound art James Webb installation site. Like a metaphorical ‘cuckoo’s egg’, language of trees? What would they tell us? describes his favourite installation the birdcalls are disguised as a part of the natural I will invite a selection of experts in various environment, concealing a level of meaning from fields to spend an individual session with me at and plans for a new work at the all but those in the know. the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and ask them to tell Yorkshire Sculpture Park For my residency in West Bretton at the me what they see when they look around the Park Yorkshire Sculpture Park, I will make another piece and at the other artworks in the landscape. These that warps our relationship to the surrounding ‘interviews’ will then be transcribed and shared SUPERNATURE landscape. Part alternative history, part science with a writer who will help me script a series of fiction, and even part psychoanalysis of the West literary images and fictional dialogues. These texts It’s hard to choose just one favourite artwork. So Bretton landscape, I will pay special attention to and ideas will be recorded by local voice actors many projects mean different things to me and the presence, history and imaginative possibility of and the sound recordings broadcast from speakers seem to come to life in new situations. But an early trees. Where did they come from? What brought concealed in parts of the park, especially in the project, There’s No Place Called Home, continues them to this place? How are they placed in relation trees, and broadcast so as to create a sense of the to inspire me and the people who interact with it. to things? What if these trees could witness things? Park speaking its thoughts, talking in its sleep, It all started in 2004, in Kitakyushu, Japan, What would we hear if we could understand the bubbling over with psychodynamic potential. and since then There’s No Place Called Home has become a recurring, worldwide intervention James Webb (photographed by Jonty Wilde) at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park where he will return later in artwork with audio recordings of specific foreign the year to undertake his new project. birdcalls broadcast from speakers concealed in local trees. A recent example involves calls of a canyon wren (Catherpes mexicanus), a songbird native to the western part of North America, broadcast from a speaker concealed in a tree in Bergen, Norway. Bird vocalizations are generally used to mark territory and attract mates, and the project’s audio is mixed so as to appear to sound as lifelike to humans as possible within the environment. The incongruent sounds do not affect the local birds STAY IN TOUCH any more than the ringing of mobile phones do: the calls are unrecognisable and irrelevant to endemic birds. For the human audiences, I tend not to advertise the work, and rather present it as a covert, site-specific action, like a hack into nature, or a type of sonic graffiti. This work keys into the symbol of the bird – the animal at which we direct ideas of freedom, transience, migration and cultural currency. It is a call to wanderers, strangers and outsiders – to those who have got lost. There’s No Place Called Home generates meaning out of displacement, using foreign elements to illuminate the social, COMMONGROUND.ORG.UK cultural and political interactions found at the

ACCESS FOR EVERYONE * CELEBRATING TREES & CULTURE ARTIST RESIDENCY #8 * JAMES WEBB * SUPERNATURE * YORKSHIRE | 15 LEAF! | WOOD OF THE WORLD Will Ritchie tells us about the Wood Will Ritchie is the Curator of Horticulture at the National of the World growing in Wales Botanic Garden of Wales. Will started at the Garden in January 2017 and is responsible for the management and development of the plant collections. Originally ABOVE AND from Aberdeenshire, Will has also worked in botanic gardens BEYOND in Scotland, the United States and the Middle East. The National Botanic Garden of Wales, although a modern botanic garden of only 17 years, was built upon a Regency parkland established by Sir William Paxton. The picturesque image of rolling hills and pasture, as depicted by Thomas Horner's painting of the estate, was a landscape designed by Samuel Lapidge, and inspired by the works of Capability Brown. To this day, the characteristics of the landscape have been preserved and a £6.7 million project is due to further enhance and manage Paxton's parkland. Despite this appreciation and care for the site's history, the PAUL NASH 1889-1946 Botanic Garden is not limited by smooth and One of the most important undulating swards of closely cropped pasture and landscape artists of the 20th fields. Within 560 acres you will find a certified century, Nash was also a leading organic farm, a National Nature Reserve (NNR), figure in the development of botanical collections and trees. Modernism in British art. As an official war artist in WWI, his As a botanic garden our role is to conserve, paintings of shattered trees educate, research and display. As a national mocked the ambitions of war. His botanic garden, our mission includes conserving later work explored Surrealism, notably Event on the Downs, which the flora of Wales. To preserve Welsh native trees we combine science and cultivation. In addition showed a giant tennis ball next Araucaria aracana, otherwise known as the monkey puzzle tree, from the Chile section of the Wood of to a twisted tree stump. to holding DNA barcodes for genetic studies, we the World at the National Botanic Garden of Wales. grow a diverse range of native species, both in situ, throughout our NNR, and ex situ, within the botanical collections. Three species of rowan begun in eight plots representing regions of Tibetan cypresses accompanied by wild-collected growing in our collections are Sorbus leptophylla, the world with climates similar to Wales. The rhododendrons; you can touch the elegant white S. leyana and S. minina, all three are found only former director of horticulture, Ivor Stokes, bark of Himalayan birch and admire species of in Wales and are threatened by extinction. The envisaged an arboretum that didn't just feature roses which are new to cultivation. The Woods of specimens in the Botanic Garden are their lifeline; regimented lines of specimens, like an antiquated the World project continues to this day. Creating THE WOODLAND TRUST 1972 stories, research and propagation all helps to museum, but eight exotic woodlands recreated. an arboretum is a unique opportunity and it will preserve them for future generations. Ivor planned to plant entire habitats, including be an important part of the Botanic Garden. Spiralling threats to our precious woods and trees Since the conception of the Botanic Garden in trees and their associated flora, the herbs and With more than 9,600 tree species threatened by leads to the founding of the the mid 1990s, an arboretum has been planned. shrubs they would grow alongside in the wild. extinction, arboreta have never been so important. Woodland Trust, which remains The South Park of the estate was designated as Although the project is still a work in progress, The National Botanic Garden of Wales is a joy at the forefront of the fight to protect, restore and create a potential site for the arboretum in some of the some beautiful specimens have already become to explore, a vital resource for conservation and UK woodland. The Woodland earliest designs and latterly the 'Woods of the established. In the plot representing the temperate an exciting project to be part of. Trust now owns and manages World' was created. In 2005, large-scale planting regions of the Himalayas, you'll walk past more than 1,000 wildlife- rich native woods across the UK, including many ancient woodlands and Sites of Simon Clements on carving oak Special Scientific Interest. poles for the Tree Charter WOODCRAFT

I’ve made things by hand for as long as I remember and first worked with clay, throwing pots. After pottery, I worked as a teacher in the therapeutic units of various hospitals, where I COMMON GROUND 1983 often found myself making things in wood with Common Ground is founded and its first major project patients. Several years later, this led to a job is 'Trees, Woods and the making masts and spars for sailing boats. Green Man' - from 1986 to To celebrate the 800th anniversary of the 1989 it explores the cultural Charter of the Forest and to launch a new Tree relationship between trees and people, publishing various books Charter in November this year, I’ve been asked and initiating several art by the Woodland Trust to carve 11 ‘marker poles’ exhibitions, including 'The Tree to be placed in various locations around the UK. of Life' with the South Bank All the wood for the project has been donated by Centre, 'Out of the Wood' with the Crafts Council, and Andy the Crown Estate at Windsor Great Park – that’s Goldsworthy's 'Leaves' show at 11 premium oak trees, each to be hand carved On site at the Sylva Wood Centre in Oxfordshire, where Simon Clements will carve the 11 ‘marker the Natural History Museum. with imagery and accompanied with poetry by poles’ over the summer months, to be installed across the UK and unveiled during the launch of the Tree Harriet Fraser and Christine Mackey (who are Charter on 6 November 2017. both taking part in Charter Art Residencies this year), along with Sophie McKeand and Mandy Simon Clements is a wood carver Haggith. understand what it all means. But it is important As pole number one nears completion I have specialising in bespoke carving The images carved into the wood will express to me that the work is open to interpretation, so a 1.5 tonne oak pole sitting here on the carving commissions and community based sculptural projects. the relationship between people and trees. It is it is all a bit of balancing act. trestle, complete with carved ribbon and imagery, He lives in Oxfordshire. my job to design a visual interpretation of these The lettering needs to be large enough to be destined for Manchester City Forest Park, telling pieces of poetry and the Tree Charter principles, seen at a distance and legible enough for visitors the story of a family walking a woodland path. so that it can all be carved into a large, to read as they spiral around the pole. I chose The narrative begins at the base with child-sized irregular cylinder of oak. The trick is not to be Lucida Sans because it is striking and easy to read bare foot prints scampering though the mud, too obvious, nor so obtuse that people don’t – even at 3 metres high! treading leaf litter under foot. 16 | summer 2017 Jim Bettle of the Dorset Charcoal WOODWORK | LEAF! Company explains why you should Jim Bettle has entered his 50th buy British charcoal year of age and his 20th year of charcoal production. Having left college in London with a degree in estate management, Jim travelled extensively and sampled FEEL THE BURN many forms of employment including thatching and coppicing before establishing The More than 90 per cent of all charcoal used in Dorset Charcoal Co. in 1997. this country comes from overseas, predominantly the endangered tropical rainforest and mangrove habitats of South America, West Africa and South East Asia. In addition to the damage caused by unsustainable forestry practices in these regions, there is the negative environmental impact arising from the consumption of fossil fuels transporting charcoal so far around the world. British charcoal is not only the sound THE GREAT STORM 1987 environmental option but is also a high-grade A powerful storm ravages the fuel. With carbon content as high as 90 per cent UK in the middle of October. Winds gust up to 100mph, 18 compared to only 60 per cent in many imported people lose their lives, and of varieties, charcoal produced from British the 15 million trees said to have hardwoods is unsurpassed. blown over in the night, most are Using wood as a fuel has a number of chainsawed and removed, even if they are still rooted and alive. benefits. Firstly, contrary to what many people One hour into the burn process, Jim locates the chimneys and seals the lid. This reaction in the aftermath of think, burning wood and charcoal can be the storm reveals our estranged environmentally beneficial. relationship with trees. Much of the woodland in the UK is semi- New woodfuel markets will secure the future of with imports from South America or South natural woodland and benefits from being our historic wooded landscapes. Africa. Moreover, providing the wood comes from managed. Many small woodlands are under- Producing charcoal and using wood as a fuel a sustainable source it is a source of renewable managed, so cutting firewood and producing also benefits the rural economy by providing stored solar energy. charcoal from them can help rekindle traditional local employment, and an opportunity for People often ask if burning charcoal and woodland management to the benefit of both the diversification for farmers and other landowners firewood is bad for the environment. Well, trees trees, the wildlife and the owners. to find value in low-grade wood. Local turn sunlight and carbon dioxide into carbon Bringing coppice woodlands back into rotation deliveries eliminate the necessity for long-haul (wood) which we can burn to create energy, a truly encourages a greater diversity of flora and fauna. transportation and the production and supply of renewable resource so long as the wood comes Cutting wood opens up woodlands for flowers, local charcoal has been shown to reduce fossil from a sustainable source and is burned in a clean, insects, birds and small mammals letting in light. fuel consumption by over 85 per cent, compared efficient way, close to where it was felled.

Sean Hellman tells how he learned DAVID NASH 1945 Sculptor David Nash is known about building coracles for works in wood and for shaping living trees. His large sculptures are sometimes carved or partially burned to PADDLE POWER produce blackening. He uses a chainsaw and axe to carve the I first came across coracles when I was on a wood and a blowtorch to char the wood. He also makes land greenwood course in Ironbridge, on the banks art, the best known of which of the River Severn. Being very shallow-drafted is Wooden Boulder, a large oak boats with no keel, coracles are perfect for rivers sphere, which over the years that other boats would run aground in. has been washed downriver One evening, we were taken out in them and from North Wales to the sea. only one person fell in – and not me! It was great fun paddling and crossing the river in them, and of course this inspired me to want to make coracles myself. They are traditionally made from willow, ash or hazel and covered in a large animal hide but are now commonly made from ash lath and calico, which has been waterproofed with bitumen paint. I used to make coracles from sawn ash lath but now I use cleft or bent roundwood, typically willow or hazel. Ash lath can waste too much good ash, as it snaps if the grain runs across rather than along the pieces. They can ANDY GOLDSWORTHY 1956 weigh between 25 and 40 pounds and are easily Goldsworthy creates ephemeral carried with the aid of a strap around the front of Sean Hellman (left) and Alex Langlands (right) build coracles while filmingEdwardian Farm. ,site-specific sculptures using the shoulders. They are best carried up the river (Photograph copyright S. Hellman.) whatever natural materials come and floated down, as it can be impossible or, at to hand. He incorporates found objects and natural specimens least, extremely hard work to paddle upstream in craft: to ferry people and goods. Even when toll Each river in Wales has its own design into temporary sculptures, which them for any distance. bridges were built, people often resented paying of coracle. For example; Teifi in Cardigan; he then documents extensively Coracles are different from most other river the toll and carried on using their coracles. Tywi in Carmarthen; Taf in Cardiff; Cleddau through photography, taking 'before, craft due to their weight, construction and how Apart from transportation, another purpose in Haverfordwest; Wye in Chepstow and, during and after' shots. These photographs are often the only they are paddled. It’s very simple to navigate: you was for fishing, either by line or with nets. With apparently, three designs on the river Severn. permanent record of his works. have a single, long, paddle which you use at the net fishing, a net is held between two coracles, However, the coracle is not just a Welsh boat. front of the craft, not at the side. If you paddle which drift down river taking salmon or sea It has been found to be part of traditional ways from the side you will only succeed in going trout. (To do this today you must have a licence, of life in Britain, Ireland, France, and across Sean Hellman is a greenwood around in circles! which is issued yearly, by the appropriate river the globe in India, Vietnam, Iraq and many worker who runs a small craft production business on the The paddle is placed in the water with the flat authority.) People also used coracles for fishing other lands. Most cultures who wanted to use edge of Dartmoor. He works in face before you, and is then moved from this single-handedly, and there is a way of paddling a boat have made something like a coracle at local and sustainable wood to produce artefacts for indoors and position in a figure of 8, this motion pulling the with the paddle under your armpit, leaving one one time or another, due to the simple way it outdoors. coracle forward. Crossing a current in a coracle hand free for the net. As you might imagine, this is constructed and the availability of materials is easy, and this was the most common use of this method of takes time to master properly. required. summer 2017 | 17 LEAF! | FLOODING Trees are our natural ally in flood

Sabine Peukert works for the management says Sabine Peukert Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group South West in Somerset as a Resource Protection Adviser. She offers farm advice on natural flood and soil management, diffuse SLOW THE FLOW pollutions, regulation compliance and agri-environment schemes. Recent flooding events, such as the Cumbria floods in winter 2015/16 and the Somerset Levels and Moors in winter 2013/14 have taught us that we need to re-think our approach to flood management. Historically, we have straightened rivers and drained the upper catchments to get the water off the land as quickly as possible, constructed engineered flood defences to protect communities and properties from flooding and funded dredging in the lower catchments. Now, the focus has shifted SUMMER towards measures across whole catchments that HARVEST seek to restore the functioning of the landscape and slow the flow of water through it – termed natural Cherry Pie flood management (NFM). Numerous small interventions, each being low The first Sunday in August was cost and low risk and providing small effects, add traditionally known as 'Cherry Pie up to reduce the volume of river flows during or Sunday' in Buckinghamshire. It marked after heavy rain, and delay the time it takes for flood the end of the local cherry harvest Woodland planting on the floodplain near Ilminster, Somerset, to soak up flood flows. when the area's famous black cherries, water to reach the floodplains. NFM is not trying called 'chuggies' were made into to replace but rather supplement conventional delicious pies, cakes and pastries. engineered flood defences to reduce localised to streams and rivers. Research has shown that council land drainage consent or Environment flooding. A whole range of benefits can also be woody dams significantly slow the flow of water Agency flood risk activities permits are required. 375g plain flour, sifted provided by NFM including habitat creation, and are essential to stream health. The efficacy of Funding for leaky woody dams is available for 175g butter improved water quality, enhanced recreational such dams will vary, which introduces variation to Countryside Stewardship Woodland Creation or 40g caster sugar value of the landscape and carbon storage. Several the time when high flows arrive at the floodplains. Higher Tier. 2 to 3 tablespoons cold projects have cropped up across the UK to deliver Leaky woody dams alter the movement of water, Over centuries, tree cover has been reduced in the water natural flood management, for example the Hills to UK. We have taken out woodlands and hedges and 450g cherries, stoned and Levels initiative in Somerset. intensively farmed the floodplains. Tree planting halved Trees are an ally in natural flood management. ‘Woodland soils can absorb is a large part of NFM, for example planting 2 to 4 tablespoons Demerara Trees take up water themselves, improve soil woodlands, tree shelterbelts or hedges across sugar structure, and woody material can be used in the approximately double slopes, as well as planting floodplain woodlands. zest and juice of 1 lemon form of leaky woody dams to slow down the flow the amount of water as Research has shown that woodland soils can 1 pinch ground nutmeg or 1 of water across the landscape. absorb approximately double the amount of teaspoon vanilla essence Historically, woody debris that naturally occurred agricultural land’ water as agricultural land and that planting a tree in streams was removed because it was believed to shelterbelt at the bottom of slopes in agricultural 1. Rub the flour and butter together ‘choke up’ waterways. Attitudes are changing and landscapes can reduce river flows after heavy in a bowl until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the caster we are now reintroducing wood into small streams creating a variety of conditions and resources rainfall. Trees also reduce the movement of soil sugar and then a little cold water in the form of leaky woody dams or brushwood which benefit wildlife. For example,147 species particles to watercourses by acting as a barrier to to bind into a dough. Wrap in clingfilm and pop in the fridge for dams. of invertebrates are considered to be associated field runoff and binding the soil with roots. 30 minutes. Woody dams are made from logs secured to the with coarse woody debris in streams, including Hedgerows, shelterbelts and woodlands also 2. Preheat the oven to 190 C / Gas 5. banks or ground to avoid any movement during craneflies, mayfly nymphs and native crayfish. provide valuable habitat and food sources for Grease a pie dish. floods, which mimic naturally fallen trees. Leaky The best sites for leaky woody dams are in wildlife and take up nutrients which may otherwise 3. In a saucepan over a medium heat woody dams allow low flows and fish to pass small headwater streams or across seasonal runoff enter watercourses. combine the cherries, Demerara sugar, unimpeded, but slow high flows and raise water channels, where local wood is easily accessible The best sites for planting are across runoff lemon zest, juice and nutmeg or vanilla. Bring to a gentle simmer and levels above bank height to create temporary water and sites that are away from housing, bridges and pathways, across slopes, in wet field corners and cook until the cherries soften, about storage on the floodplain. Brushwood dams mimic culverts. Leaky brushwood barriers however are on floodplains. Generally, it is best to plant tree 20 minutes. beaver dams and are made from wooden stakes in ditches without fish populations. It is important and shrub species that naturally occur in the area. 4. Remove the pastry from the fridge securing bundles of brushwood. They slow the to remember not to cut down trees during the bird Water-loving species, like alder, willow and black and roll out on a floured surface, adding a little more water if neces- flow in ditches and filter out silt before it can get breeding season – 1 March to 1 September. County poplar are best for floodplains. sary, to a 1cm thickness. Roll enough to line the dish and make a lid. 5. Line the prepared pie dish with storyteller-in-residence Brendan Chase so viscerally encapsulates. In Celtic baptised by rain on St Swithin’s Day. the pastry then spoon in the warm LEAF! filling. Cover with the pastry lid and Martin Maudsley enjoys the cool mythology the tree particularly associated with High summer is also the time of year for one of press the edges together to seal. Trim this time of year is hazel (Corylus avellana), the the most artistic of British traditional customs: well- if necessary and cut two small slits shadows of summer in the top. tree of learning and knowledge. An archetypal dressing. In parishes around the country, but most story relates how nine nuts from nine hazel trees frequently and famously in Derbyshire, wooden 6. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden containing all the wisdom of the world once fell frames filled with moist clay are meticulously and the filling is piping hot. Remove WELL-DRESSED into a sacred well where they were duly swallowed decorated with colourful collages of flower petals from the oven and serve. by a fish – the Salmon of Knowledge. The salmon and other natural materials to be proudly displayed FOR SUMMER was eventually caught and eaten by the Irish besides the village well. Contestably claimed to hero Fionn MacCuill (‘Son of Hazel’) who – in a stretch back to Romano-British pagan practices After the effervescence of May and the blooming nutshell – gained all the knowledge of the trees for of worshipping water deities, well-dressing has of June, summer reaches its height in the humid himself. nevertheless re-rooted in recent years and caught warmth of July. The seasonal peak of summer’s Outside the sheltered woods and their ancient the imagination of communities in celebrating the solstice (‘the sun’s stasis’) has been reached and mysteries, July’s weather is often tempestuous; season and local distinctiveness. In July and August striving to grow gives way to a sigh of relief and prone to sudden, drenching downpours of rain there are more than 50 such decorated wells to be a pause in the cycle of life. Stepping underneath which puddle and pool on the sun-hardened found in Derbyshire alone; all beautifully dressed the canopy of trees, now in their foliar fullness, earth. One of the best known nuggets of weather- for the occasion. there are pools of cool air to slip into and savour lore relates to the feast day of Saint Swithin, an as woodlands become natural cathedrals: still and Anglo-Saxon bishop, on the 15 July: ‘St Swithin’s Host a Tree Party Martin Maudsley is a quiet, with luminous green light filtering through Day if it does rain/ For forty days it will remain…’ professional storyteller based in stained-glass leaves. Here too, sometimes, there Forty days of rain is an ominous prospect at a Celebrate special trees and woods by hosting your Dorset and working across the are secret pools of water inviting us to plunge time when harvesters and holiday-makers alike are own ‘Tree Party’. The Woodland Trust is giving South West of England. He is the lead artist for Common Ground’s in and wash away the frenzy of everyday life; as keeping a weather-eye on the rest of summer. In away fundraising picnic packs full of fun activities! Seasonal Schools project. the portrait of the hot and bothered policeman the orchards, by strange contrast, a good crop is They’ll be available until the end of August. Sign up in Denys Watkins-Pitchford’s wonderful novel traditionally said to rely on the baby apples being for yours at woodlandtrust.org.uk/treeparty 18 | summer 2017 THE GREAT STORM | LEAF! ON THE WOODSHELF

SHAVING HORSES, LAP SHAVES AND OTHER WOODLAND VICES by Sean Hellman

Aftermath of the 1987 Great Storm at Taymount Rise in South London.

as well as vertical vigour, and as trees fell and Tamsin Treverton Jones talks of canopies opened, new light brought new life to the landscape, legacy and loss forest floor. FATHER AND SON Despite the good intentions of tidy-minded

people, the newly-planted woodlands were soon father whittled at my crib overwhelmed, as seeds, blown by the wind, took pulling bark and heart shaped leaves THE GREAT root among nursery seedlings. But we learned to value this natural regeneration, to love dead from slender yellow sticks of lime STORM OF '87 bestowing on me nature’s toys THE TREE LINE: POEMS freshly scented closely grained FOR TREES, WOODS & PEOPLE In the early hours of an October morning in 1987 smooth to my unseasoned grasp ‘But we learned to value this Edited by Michael Mckimm the biggest and most ferocious storm to hit the brought me to the feel of wood British Isles since 1703 made landfall off the coast natural regeneration, to love filled my head with forest songs of Dorset. Unexpectedly twisting inland, it raked dead wood, to embrace the the southern half of sleeping Britain in a cruel slant I was schooled in linden groves from Weymouth to the Wash, killing 18 people. wild in our landscape’ seated on a softening stump Fifteen million trees were lost in the space of sunk deep into the alkaline a few tumultuous hours. Woodlands, parks and on shallow rooted sorrel slopes gardens were devastated. Up to 700 specimen wood, to embrace the wild in our landscape and canopied by emerald beech trees fell at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew; to understand that what remained was more I memorised each bough and burr over 360,000 on National Trust land alone. important than what had been lost. senses swarmed by buckram bloom Almost 30 years later, in a box of my late father’s The storm brought many changes: a change my mind alive with all I knew paintings, I came across an old photograph of the in the way our fruit is grown; a change in the

Kew Mural, a large commemorative sculpture way we understand our woodlands, the weather taught to turn while others played carved with the wood of exotic trees that fell in and the wind. It brought nightjars and breeding the gardens that night (and is still on display there woodlarks back to Kent and gave sculptors, to split and quarter lumber stacks with sickle blade and sharpened axe THE HIDDEN LIFE OF today). joiners and craftsmen enough wood for another TREES: WHAT THEY FEEL, Designed by my father, Terry Thomas, and 30 years. It also allowed me to celebrate my father rapt I stood beside the lathe showered in motes of greenwood dust HOW THEY COMMUNICATE carved by a young sculptor, the mural is a skillful – everything he was, everything he left behind – - DISCOVERIES FROM A and intricate interplay of grain, texture and tone, and the serendipitous twists of time and place that watched him riffle rasp and sand that shows the stone lions of Kew attempting to make us who we are. whet the black Arkansas stone SECRET WORLD defend the gardens from the calamitous breath of This is my windblown journey, but everyone breathed his passion shaped my own by Peter Wohlleben the wind. who was there that night remembers the storm The discovery of the photograph was the starting and has their own story, and our children have woodsman’s season rolls again point for this exploration of landscape, legacy and grown up in the landscape it created. creatures seek secrete and store loss: a journey to seek out and tell some of the leaves extract the sun’s last rays untold stories from that unforgettable night, and drop or fly denuded stems to search for the roots of my father’s unique talent. I stand before the silent bench Windblown by I travelled across cultures, continents and his vintage billhook in my hand Tamsin Treverton Tamsin Treverton Jones is a writer generations with sailors and fishermen, luthiers loot the forest floor alone and poet She studied French at and lighthouse keepers, rough sleepers and Jones marks the Bristol University and was Head dragging windblown timber home refugees, all of them inextricably bound by the 30th anniversary of of Press at the Royal Shakespeare the Great Storm of Company, the Royal Court events of one extraordinary night, their personal Theatre and Bath Festivals. She experiences played out on a national stage. October 1987. It will This poem is from a collection of poetry inspired writes arts and travel features, has be published on 5 written, produced and presented After the storm, the urge to clear and replant by the events of the Great Storm, and was written features for radio, programmed was strong: in cleansed woodlands, row upon row October by Hodder for the sculptor of the Kew Mural, Robert Games, literary events for live digital & Stoughton. and his late father, Gilbert. broadcast and published two of new trees were planted in blue plastic tubes books for The History Press. and huge fires of storm-damaged wood burned for months. But the unprecedented violence of the storm had generated exceptional horizontal, summer 2017 | 19 KEW GARDENS HIGGINS ART GALLERY TOWNER ART THE LONG VIEW GALLERY MEET THE ARTISTS Now - September AND MUSEUM HAYMAKING Now - September Now - September 20 July 12, 2pm British Artists in Grizedale Forest FESTIVAL the Shirley Sherwood Romance and Rebel- Ravilious & Co: The 22 July JULY Collection lion: The Art of the Pattern of Friendship Meet artists Rob and Harriet Fraser kingcombe.org kew.org Victorians townereastbourne.org.uk thehigginsbedford.org.uk artrabbit.com/events/artists- talk-rob-and-harriet-fraser

TREEFOLDS AN ARTS TRAIL THE LONG VIEW EXHIBITION Now - 31 August Grizedale Forest ALMANAC thelongview.today Special OWEN GRIFFITHS' for Trees, Woods and People CARAVAN STUDIO 20 July - August STAY IN TOUCH National Botanic STAY IN TOUCH Garden of Wales commonground.org.uk/ Summer 2017 charter-art

ROYAL WELSH SHOW 24 - 27 July Powys

COMMONGROUND.ORG.UK rwas.wales/royal-welsh-show COMMONGROUND.ORG.UK

THE LONG VIEW INTO THE WOODS WHAT'S YOUR SUMMER BREEZE SECOND NATURE THE CLEARING PAUL NASH EVENT? MEET THE ARTISTS 6 July - 11 August 11 July - 8 October Now - 17 December Now - 28 Jan 2018 Now - August 22 July 11am - 12pm Royal Academy Victoria and Albert Share your local Grizedale Forest Frith Street Gallery Compton Verney Museum, Gallery 102 Sainsbury Centre for celebration or find An Ensemble of The Art of Charles Alex Hartley and Tom Visual Arts, Norwich out more about what's Rob and Harriet will Tunnicliffe Trees in British Book happening near you be giving a talk in Gallery Artists James Illustration scva.ac.uk the Yan building Free royalacademy.org.uk/exhibi- frithstreetgallery.com comptonverney.org.uk to attend. tion/charles-tunnicliffe-ra vam.ac.uk treecharter.uk/events- artrabbit.com/events/artists- calendar talk-rob-and-harriet-fraser

THE HIGHLAND COLLECTION Now - 27 October Highland Folk Museum FIND OUT MORE The social & rural way of life of the Scotish Highlands from the ABOUT EVENTS 1700s to 1900s. treecharter.uk/events-calendar highlifehighland.com

KURT JACKSON ASH WALKS THE LONG VIEW DROP IN DAY WORKSHOP TREEMENDOUS Saturday July 29 7 August 12 - 2pm PARTIAL 11 August - 10 am TREE FUN JUNIOR RANGER CLUB Wye, Kent Jackson Gallery, 19 August starting 26 August Grizedale Forest LUNAR Cornwall The Ash Project Walks: Walks, Talks and Eats Beaulieu Wood Reference Points AUG Meet Harriet and Rob ECLIPSE Rare opportunity to and the master dry Summer Picnic woodlandtrust.org.uk/events theashproject.org.uk take part in a Kurt stone waller 7 August woodlandtrust.org.uk/events artrabbit.com/events/artists- Jackson art workshop talk-rob-and-harriet-fraser kurtjackson.com

INTO THE WILD Summer Festival 25 - 28 August An intimate music festival set in the stunning English countryside intothewildgathering.com

MORNING MUSIC HERITAGE OPEN DAYS FOLKESTONE TREE DRAWINGS 14 September 9-10am TRIENNIAL Victoria and Albert BENTLEY WEALD 7-10 September Museum, London WOODFAIR Live musical event, 2 Sep - 5 Nov SMITHILLS WILD experience the unique 5,000+ UK heritage Sol Calero, local FORAGING Topic boxes of 15 - 17 September environment of the sites including historic artists and crafts- tree drawings and landscapes and parks 2 September SEP watercolours for the Lewes, East Sussex Barbara Hepworth free to visit for one people will make Museum before the furniture out of woodlandtrust.org.uk/events Prints and Drawings bentley.org.uk town wakes up. weekend only. locally sourced wood. Study Room heritageopendays.org.uk stivesseptemberfestival.co.uk folkestonetriennial.org.uk am.ac.uk

AUTUMN EQUINOX 22 Sep

THE GOOD LIFE TREE COUNCIL'S SEED EXHIBITION FOREST FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE GATHERING SEASON WOODLAND FAIR Tweed Valley, Peebles FREQUENCY FESTIVAL Oct 2017 - Jun 2018 Chapel Lawn Village, Lincoln 15 - 17 Sep 23 Sep - 23 Oct Redlake Victoria and Albert Wood market, conkers Festival of digital A weekend of music, Since 1998, The Tree Museum, Gallery 38A Saturday 7 October and more! culture food, books, ideas, Council has been OCT 10am to 4.30pm 21 - 29 Oct workshops and the organising Seed An Exhibition of (Evening talk: 7pm) 20 - 29 Oct great outdoors. Gathering Season. photographs of trees forest-festival.com frequency.org. uk vam.ac.uk rvcbs.wordpress.com thegoodlifeexperience.co.uk folkestonetriennial.org.uk

TREE CHARTER LAUNCH 6 NOVEMBER