The Society makes a welcome return to RSPB Pulborough on Saturday 22 January to tame a challenging hedge.
Part of the purpose of the day is to raise money for charity and this year, the Committee have decided to share any monies raised equally between our usual charity, Chailey Heritage Foundation and a charity close to the heart of Phill Piddell, the Hands of Hope charity at Hawkhurst. More details about each charity can be found at :- Chailey Heritage Foundation www.chf.org.uk/ Hands of Hope www.hohcharity.co.uk/ Both charities do great work , so if you feel inclined to make a small donation please do so by making an electronic transfer to the Society's bank account and we will pass the money on. Please indicate on the payment which charity you wish to support. If you don't show a preference we will split your donation between each charity. The Society's bank details are :- Sort code 20-49-76 A/C No. 90867381 A really great day at Burpham near Arundel was enjoyed by around 25 cutters of mixed ages and abilities, which was a fitting tribute to Phill Piddell. The hedge was a real mixture of good bad and indifferent, which gave all a good work out. Great to see some new faces and some more familiar ones . After much deliberation, the judging panel lead by Mike Parrott, award the Phill Piddell trophy to Oliver Collins; well done Oliver and to all those trainees who took part- every hedge is learning experience and the trick is to remember past mistakes to avoid making again in the future. Thanks to Phil, Frank and Tim , who efforts made it all happen. Remaining events for the rest of the season:-
Should you want to enter the competition please fill in the attached form and email to the address on the form
Our annual competition is on Sunday 20 February 2022 at Norton Farm Selbourne near Alton Hampshire. It promises to be a great event with a decent quality hawthorn hedge to lay, some excellent David Dunk stakes and binders currently being sourced. After the competition , we have a sit down hot lunch and prize giving ceremony at the nearby Oakhanger Village hall. The event is being put on in collaboration with the Selbourne Land Partnership and South Downs National Park, so there should be plenty of interest. So don't delay and get your entry form in now ; click on link below and save a copy onto your computer, complete it and send on to:- [email protected] Closing date 30 January 2022
A great turn out of 29 for CD2.which must be a record number of cutters for a coppicing day , yielded 440 binders and 330 stakes, which given the overstood nature of the hazel was a brilliant result. The day started off with a briefing from Tim and teams of 3 or 4 were then allocated areas. Peter was assigned fire making duties and soon put his wafter into good use. With the coppice being worked on on a number of fronts, we soon had 5 well controlled bonfires going burning the vast amount of brush that was being produced. Experienced and novice cutters mucked in and stuck to their tasks well and collaborative working was the order of the day Due to recent rain the ground was very muddy and the hoped for high quantities of stakes and binders were just not there, as the landowner had in the past stopped the Society coppicing , resulting in much overstood hazel. Never the less all attendees enjoyed themselves , even if some had car / van difficulties. Always good to see new members turn up and they were made most welcome. Plenty of sustenance was provided with hot soup, pork pie and hot drinks , which went down well. Many thanks to all those who turned up- may had travelled hours to get there and some had taken a day off from work. Hearteningly and many thanks to Tim,some of the stakes and binders have already been transported to the site of Improver's Day on 8 January. CD2 was another well run event for the Society and will pay dividends in the years to come when we get some decent quantities of product out of Blunts Wood. Regrowth from previous years is exceptional. Matthew Beard 31.12.21 ps Seasons totals so far from CD1 and CD2:- Stakes 790 Binders 980 Excellent efforts from all attendees- we had a total of 51 turn up to coppicing days in 2021 Question- what do you do when a few days before an event the landowner tells you a contractor has been in and flailed a hedge to death reducing it to 5 feet high ?
Answer- Frank gets on the phone and gets hold of Alec Holt at Nodes farm ,Magham Down and brings forward an event planned in March to early December. Tim Hughes steps up with transport of stakes and binders in his newly refurbished jumbo trailer. Result- A victory for Frank and the Society with 24 attendees , representing the broad church nature of the Society from current National Champions , to trainees, from early 20s to nearly 80s and all in between. A challengingly beefy and tall mixed hedge , which some reason had been planted with extra wide rows and close to a fence. Much chainsaw work got most of the hedge down before it rained, which was lucky as from the photos you can see it was starting to turn quite muddy. 15 cants completed with an impressive pile of brash to boot. Tip - most of our events are not competitive ; if you don't feel like undertaking the marathon of doing 10 yards hard graft by yourself , let Frank know in advance , so you can work in a pair with someone of your choice. The model for this is the French and Jeffries Partnership, a fairy recent union that is now paying dividends, with some cracking work to show amongst the many words of wisdom and odd expletive. Members Book your place now - Coppicing Day 2 - Blunts Wood Haywards Heath 30.12.21; email Tim Hughes at [email protected] PS. The illustrious trio of Schofield , Jeffries and French finished off the hedge with a couple of return visits, even managing to work round a raised manhole cover. The end result looks splendid and great example of the quality work undertaken by the Society. Well done chaps. Click on the blue text below to go to a great article in Farmers Weekly which features SEHLS member Nigel Adams
How to establish, manage and rejuvenate hedgerows - Farmers Weekly (fwi.co.uk) An excellent day's coppicing at Turners Hill produced 650 binders and 350 stakes. 20 Society members attended and all worked really hard and achieved the objective of clearing 2 large areas of coppice and forming a brush barrier around the perimeter of each area to deter deer. Tim has spent many days in the wood felling and clearing by himself and the wood is starting to produce some decent product, with the prospect of more in the years to come . It was great to see new members Mick, Beth and Elizabeth, who got stuck in and contributed extremely well to the team effort. As ever , Terry showed us all how to sort bundle and tie up the finished product. All agreed they a really enjoyable and productive day. The food and hot drinks provided by Matthew also went down well. The next coppicing day is at Blunts Wood , Haywards Heath on 30 December, which will be different type of wood and coppice , but still should be a great day , especially after the Christmas period. We are hoping to get 30 Society members attending- please keep that day free. 34 yards of unfinished hedge was left over at Training Day hedge 1 at Clapham, near Findon. The three musketeers , aka Tim , Iain and Alan dutifully completed the hedge recently, on a day that was the wettest for a while. They stuck to their task admirably and had it completed by early afternoon. Well done chaps , it is great to have the first totally completed hedge of the season. The completed hedge of 207 yards now looks fantastic . Worth reading - click on link below:-
Turning over a new leaf: the humble hedge stages a remarkable comeback | Rural affairs | The Guardian Nigel Adams is quoted in article More The Society was extremely well represented at the 2021 National Championships held at Rotherfield estate Alton Hampshire on 23 October 2021, with David Dunk taking the headlines , but all attending Society members acquitting themselves admirably. 19 members entered the competition, covering Midland , SOE, Dorset and Yorkshire styles. The hedge was a real challenge and varying in composition , species , age and density , hence organizers allowed 6 hours cutting time rather than the usual 5. All 6 hours were required, but all managed to finish in time with massive amount of brash being produced. Winners of their classes were :-
So congratulations to the winners and especially David Dunk , who had a beast of a hedge and some very strong competition in that class.We are extremely lucky to have such quality cutters as members of the Society, who give their time freely to the cause. All who took part did a good job, even those entering for the first time- the hedge had practically all the challenges it could have - Phil Hart described it as character building- he wasn't kidding ! Thanks must go to the Society members who judged , Kevin Agate ,Dave Truran and Mark Moore, along with the stewards Roger Taylor and Helene Threadgold - they travelled a long way , gave up their time and were very professional in their duties. Phil Hart towed the display caravan to the event and manned it with Gwyn Alford and others - a decent number of members of the public called by and hopefully that will lead to new trainee enquiries and more hedges. It was pleasing to see some of this year's trainees come along - hopefully they will have been inspired by what they saw. More photos can be found at :- https://photos.app.goo.gl/Se3oXMFni35JTD6F7 ( copy and paste into search bar) The next SEHLS event, Training Day 2, is again in Hampshire , at Petersfield on 6 November .If you have not already signed up please do so by emailing Frank Wright at [email protected] There is around 180 yards of nice double row hawthorn hedge to lay. |
AuthorMatthew Archives
March 2024
Categories |