‘Probably the best coppicing related newsletter in the north west’ -Sam Ansell THE COPPICE ASSOCIATION North West www.coppicenorthwest.org.uk Horses ,squirrels and moths issue ! NEWSLETTER No 49 Spring 2014 Westmorland Red Squirrel society Horses at MAHS Three generations of one horse logging family We’ve been contacted by the above requesting were at Moss and Height Spring wood in April. information on any grey squirrels you see. Full article on page 5. From left to right, Kevin, Saskia and George Read made their annual visit to MAHS to move Chairman gives birth wood out of Sam Robinson’s section. Twenty Congratulations to illustrious chairman/person people attended the workday and approximatly /man/woman/pet Sam Ansell and his partner Di have sixty sausages were eaten, several poles were had a bouncing baby boy Ash Larfynn Ansell. Di peeled, trees were felled with axes and cross cut and the baby are doing well. saws and the sun shone . Oak bark peeling at the MAHS workday 1 COMMITTEE 2014 Events Walter Lloyd President Lakeland Willows, Fairfview Lane, Staveley in Cartmel, 12th April Damson Day, Lyth valley (west of Kendal) Ulverston, Cumbria LA12 8NS CANW has a stand again at this popular little show. See M 0774 005 3794 The damson blossom, partake of the damson related SAM ANSELL beers,waft adzes round by your angles. Sam Ansell organising Chair the canw stand. M 07990 952473 E Grace Holland 17th-18th May 2014 Weekend in the Woods 2014 Secretary Staveley in Cartmel C/o the office Courses to be advised, get it in your diary. [email protected] 30th May -1st June HOLKER SHOW: 30th May- 1st June 2014. REBECCA OAKS Vice-chair We have a stand at the Holker Show and will need demonstrators to 93, Silverdale Road Yealand Redmayne attend please. Let me know if you can make it for 1 or 2 or 3 days. Carnforth LA5 9TD We usually get a handful of free passes, so friends and family might Tel: 01524 781375 Email; be able to get a freebie too! Grace [email protected] BRIAN CRAWLEY Treasurer 13,14,15th June Stott Park Bobbin Mill, earth burn and cellidh , 11a Merefell Road Bolton Le Sands being organised by Dave Noblett and Sam Robinson (mob 07818 Carnforth LA5 8EX 707015). Help needed making the heap,staying awake overnight and Tel: 01524 903583 bagging up the charcoal. Find out how it was done . Louis Le Glas Assistant treasurer [email protected] 1st-5th September Woodland Pioneers, Staveley in Cartmel Via Sam Ansell TWIGGY 209 Chorley Road Blackrod, Bolton BL6 5LJ M 07734 353 202 Email [email protected] Committee news EDWARD MILLS The AGM saw most of the membership now joining the committee 5, Beech Court Birkrigg Park High in one guise or another. This is great news for keeping a bit of youthful Carley Ulverston vigour to the Association. Most significantly Brian Crawley has now Cumbria LA12 0UH handed over responsibility for Treasurer to Louis Le Glas. After a 01229 582551 M 07875 248115 mammoth stint as treasurer (at least 15 years) in which time he has had to cope with decimalization, the invention of the Babbage difference Email: [email protected] engine and ever increasing numbers going on Weekend in the Woods. IAN TAYLOR Brian will still be on the committee and no doubt guiding Louis in Newsletter Editor Ramree , Brigsteer the right direction, but I’m sure we would all like to thank Brian for his Road , Kendal , LA9 calm and conscientious service over the years. Luckily Louis did 5DY (W) 07813 696161 (H) 01539 astrophysics at university so should be able to cope with the big 738835 Email : [email protected] numbers involved . OFFICE c/o Cumbria Woodlands River Mill, Staveley Mill Yard, Staveley, Brian discussing with Dave Noblett about the Kendal Cumbria LA8 9LR height of his stumps. Tel. 01539 822140 Fax. 01539 822443 Email: [email protected] Web site: www.coppicenorthwest.org.uk 2 Be at the cutting edge of heritage tool BHMAT news project Buzzbank campaign is currently at £2580 CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS towards its first stage target of £4000 with 57 people donating. Pretty impressive so far but if you We are The Woodmanship Trust, a Cumbria based feel the need to donate to the worthy cause of charity which has recently been awarded a grant by the training the next generation of coppice workers you Heritage Lottery Fund's 'Sharing Heritage' scheme to should go to:- create a heritage tool library for public use. We believe in keeping alive traditional rural skills that do not http://www.buzzbnk.org/coppice depend on oil or electricity. We believe in sharing resources. Creating a hand tool library will make all of BHMAT’s latest apprentice is Stephen this possible. Kershaw who has now started with Ian Taylor Over the coming months we will catalogue and restore one elderly man's incredible collection of hand tools relating to rural industries. Former farmer, bow top wagon builder and charcoal maker Walter Lloyd, 89, has kindly agreed for his collection to be made available to the public. He is deeply knowledgeable and experienced in the uses of these tools and it will be Moss and Height Spring woods a blessing for current and future generations to achieve this in his lifetime, before this knowledge is lost. To achieve this we need your help. We will be holding a series of work days throughout the Spring (March to May) on location in the beautiful South Lake District to sort the tools for refurbishment from his considerable collection. Then with the help of blacksmiths and tool specialists, we shall restore them to their former glory, ready for use. If you have some interest in heritage rural industries Work days have been going on through the and think you could spare at least 3 days in Spring for winter, and another section is nearly finished by sorting, cataloguing and refurbishing this collection, Dave Noblett. A succession of high winds and wet please contact project co-ordinator Sarah Thomas on weather blew over a number of trees including this [email protected], with expressions of interest. oak across the B.O.A.T. Near where we usually park. Over the summer and autumn there will also be a series of specialist-led workshops to instruct on the tools' There are regular work days (usually one a uses. month) and to get the date of the next one look on the calender on the CANW website. All are Please follow us on Twitter @WaltersTools welcome and there’s usually tea and a fire available. Jim Miller its upkeep. Always having an interest in wildlife and conservation he spent much time out on the common with Tilly. She was the latest of a number of rescue dogs that accompanied Jim, most of the time, on his sojourns on the common and in the local woods especially Moss and Height Spring. Tilly has gone on to a lovely new home in Arnside. Jim supported many charities like Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Bay Sustainability Action Group, Friends of the Earth, RSPB, The Dog’s Trust, Lancaster Canal Trust, Water Aid and Sight Savers. His love for Land Rovers was often very helpful to us but not always appreciated by his family when rescues were necessitated due to “intermittent faults”. Jim’s main connections with Louise and myself date back to early 1970s and Jim Miller died suddenly just before Ramblers Association activities in Christmas and his contemplative Budhist Furness. A new local group had just funeral service was held on 6 January at been formed and walks and working the crematorium in Barrow-in-Furness parties with our young families were looking down on the area where he grew very popular. Not having seen him for up. The service was well attended some time we were very pleased when especially by a good turn out of coppice he re-appeared in the early 2000s in his friends. A wreath incorporating some newly acquired forward-control Land charcoal had been provided by the Rover when we were working with Association. BHMAT apprentice Vince in Moss and Height Spring Wood. A beneficial Jim had been born in the Brittania at Penny friendship sprouted from then. Bridge in 1944 where his father had been publican but at an early age moved to the At one of our early charcoal earthburns Ormsgill Hotel in Barrow-in-Furness where at Great Tower Scout Camp, Dewi Jones he spent his chidhood. A connection and myself were just contemplating between us existed here that we were how the two of us, who were left on unaware of ‘til much later as I was brought site, were going to look after the first up on Schneider Estate, next to Ormsgill, night of the burn when Jim arrived and but we never knew each other then. Jim saved the day, or night, as he qualified as a draughtsman at Vickers continued to do on many more Armstrong in Barrow but then joined the occasions. His enthusiasm for the merchant navy, travelled the world on woods resulted in enrolment as a CANW supply boats to cruise liners, qualified as committee member and unofficial Chief Engineer and ended up on North Sea ranger for Moss and Height Spring oil rigs. He had been retired only a few Wood. His kindness and willingness to years. help, his laid back approach and his dry, cheeky sense of humour will be With his wife Yvonne and three daughters greatly missed especially by me.