Coppicing through Woodsmanship

Jay gathering materials in the coppice.

In this blog we are going to take a closer look at coppicing, what it is and gain an insight in how it came to be through the craft of woodsmanship.

Today, going into the wood for resources whether it be for hazel drills for friction fire, a thumb stick for walking, tongs for cooking, lid lifters for cookware management, poles for shelter building, shafts for arrow making, to name just a few – there is no better sight than when you are out on a walk in the woods and come across a nice, coppiced hazel stool throwing up lovely straight clean rods to please the eye with all the possibilities that it could provide.

Nice straight rods fresh from the coppice for use as arrow shafts.
Nice straight rods fresh from the coppice for use as arrow shafts.

This delight is magnified by the fact that many of our coppiced woods have been left unmanaged for decades now, with the demand for the materials they provided having been replaced by modern alternatives in the advancement of metals, coniferous plantations, concrete, plastics, laminates, composite materials etc. The resulting coppice is left looking more like a contorted shrub with splayed out thick limbs from the base forming different angles in search of light whilst dead limbs are cast out that no longer serve its primary purpose, in contrast to the nice straight rods reminiscent of the strings of a harp that they once provided under the watchful eye of the woodsman. But not all is lost, people are reconnecting with coppiced materials and their products once again, with rods replacing cane for bean poles and hurdles replacing fence panels etc. providing a wage to those to manage the coppice once again.

Straight rods in a neglected coppice stool often die back with no direct sunlight.
Straight rods in a neglected coppice stool often die back with no direct sunlight.
Modern materials replacing those from the coppice.
Modern materials replacing those from the coppice.

So, what is coppicing and how did it start? Some of you will know it as a process by where a tree is cut close to the ground and the stump sends up new shoots from which successive poles can be harvested indefinitely. When we think of coppicing many will think of hazel as the tree which is traditionally coppiced, but ash, elder, oak, wych elm, lime and hornbeam are amongst many species that can be harvested in this way. The National Arboretum at Westonbirt boasts a coppiced small leaf lime that is thought to be anywhere between 1,000 -2,000 years old, owing its ancient age to being constantly coppiced through that time.

Hazel rods weaved between birch rafters, in preparation for thatching
Hazel rods weaved between birch rafters, in preparation for thatching.

The idea of coppicing can be traced back to the Neolithic period when someone worked out that shoots from stumps are more useful than the original tree, enabling straight poles to grow and be collected that would otherwise be scarce in a wildwood, and so this is how woodmanship began. Forming the bond between people and nature in coercing trees to grow in a specific way to benefit them directly and in so doing providing a diverse habitat for both flora and fauna to flourish. The earliest evidence for this is the ‘trackways’ discovered beneath the peat of the Somerset levels, where coppice poles have been used some 6,000 years ago.

Hazel kitchen unit with new hurdle sides in its 8th year of service
Hazel kitchen unit with new hurdle sides in its 8th year of service.

The new shoots that the stump puts up are the favourite food for wildlife and livestock grazers and without some form of protection their feeding activity would kill off the new shoots. Today we protect the coppice with deer and rabbit fencing made of wire. As this developed into more of a concern for our ancestors it was addressed by surrounding areas of wild wood with a ditch, with the spoils being piled on the inner edge creating a mound known as a woodbank. This woodbank would then be set with a hedge to keep out livestock.

Working through coppiced material for a roof structure
Working through coppiced material for a roof structure.

To mark the boundaries of these areas today we use signs to show it is private land, back then pollarded trees were cut at intervals to establish a legal boundary for people. These were the same principle as coppiced trees, but the stump known as a bolling was cut between 6’-15’off the ground, the bolling then produced shoots out of reach from grazing animals.

Crafted from the coppice, a takedown pot hanger
Crafted from the coppice, a takedown pot hanger

This enclosed wood produced both wood and timber, both with very different purposes. Coppiced and pollard trees and the branches of timber trees producing the wood, i.e. rods, poles and logs for fencing, animal traps and cages, wattle work for internal walls in buildings, thatching material (liggers, spars, sways and pegs) besom (witch’s style broom) handles, faggots (tinder bundles from brushwood) walking sticks, arrow shafts, hurdles for fencing, rods and poles for hedge laying (binders and stakes), charcoal for cooking, gunpowder, firewood, the list goes on. Whilst the trunks of large trees too valuable and big to burn were used for beams for houses, barns, ships and places of worship, planks for floorboards, ship building, etc.

Woodland Wayer 2018 group out collecting materials for atlatl darts
Woodland Wayer 2018 group out collecting materials for atlatl darts.

The approach to coppicing developed further in dividing an enclosed wood into 7 equal areas. Each year an area would be coppiced and at the end of the 7th year you would have a full range of materials to put to purpose, this is still the case today.

Thank you for joining me into this little insight into coppicing and woodmanship, maybe when you are next out in the woods try to see if you can find the clues of our ancient woodland practices.

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