Riven Oak fencing for the NT on Lindisfarne Island When the National Trust commissioned the renewal of the access ramp up to Lindisfarne Castle they also specified an appropriate fence that would complement the seemingly ancient track. The track was surfaced with locally quarried whin sill cobbles hiding underneath a state of the art, heavily engineered structure holding the track in place. We were invited to co-ordinate the supply of the riven-oak fencing. The rails we sourced from the Ghyllheugh Estate, Northumberland, whilst the machined posts were created by Hexhamshire Hardwoods

Woodland thinning for the Woodland Trust – a PAWS restoration contract at Esh Winning, Co. Durham, winter 03/04
Each year we work in woodlands owned by the Woodland Trust. Holburn Wood was 3.1ha of ancient woodland that had been planted up with softwoods many years ago, hence the Plantations on Ancient Woodland Site (PAWS) restoration title. Cutting largish spruce is not what we enjoy doing most, but at least after we had finished it was nearer to being the woodland of mainly native hardwoods that it should be.

The original estimate of felled timber to be extracted was c. 60 tonne; the final amount was over 125 tonne. A further 50+ tonne was left in the woods out of extractable reach.

During November and December 2004 we went back to Esh Winning into Ragpath Wood, adjacent to Holburn Wood to continue the felling to waste of the sitka spruce. 

Wattle screens for Friends of St Mary’s Lighthouse, Whitley Bay
The Friends of St Mary’s Lighthouse, now defunct of course (the lighthouse that is), do a fantastic job on the gardens around the lighthouse planting species that thrive in that particularly challenging environment. I was asked to provide a section of fence to hide an existing, rather dull palisade fence. The panels were made at the workshop at Beamish out of willow and birch tops, then installed on site, fixing to the existing fence. They subsequently asked for two short sections of diamond pattern fence, to offer plants protection from the salty wind.

Living Willow fence
Owners of newly built house in Northumberland needed to conceal the plastic oil tank for their central heating system that sat at the back of their ‘blank-sheet’ garden. I was asked to create a diamond pattern living willow fence in a mild S shape. The result was quite effective and the nice people who commissioned it were very pleased with it.

Mobile Firewood Processing at Ghyllheugh, Weldon Bridge, Northumberland
Because our firewood machine is of the type that is mobile with its own Honda engine, it’s nice when we get asked to process other people’s timber on their site.
The Ghyllheugh Estate had approx. 30 tonne of timber roadside, the result of a felling operation the previous winter. As the owners burn an awful lot of wood it made sense to have it processed on site then stored somewhere dry. The operation went very smoothly courtesy of a neighbour farmer who kindly left a grain trailer with us whilst we processed straight in to the back. The job took two of us 5 days to do, all the easier for working in such a beautiful woodland.

Besom Broom workshop
Each year I get many invitations to provide workshops making besom brooms. Children seem to love helping to make them, which, apart from the wire ties are made entirely from natural materials. During the winter we cut the birch from coppice stock, which provides the straight, young material needed for the heads, handles are made from virtually any straight rod, often willow, birch or hazel.