Saturday 24th – Sunday 25h May – Oak bark peeling AND earthburn (overnight, camping in the woods). Leader – Dan Sumner
Thursday June 5th – Oak bark peeling. Leader – Mike Wallwork
Saturday June 28th – Oak bark peeling. Leader – Dan Sumner
All welcome, no experience necessary, enthusiasm for learning will be met with relish…
Bring lunch (with or without relish) & a drink. Or whatever you need depending on how long you’re staying…
If you have tools… great! If not… great! Will just be nice to see you.
Bring camping kit if you plan to stay over for the Earthburn (wild camping in the woods, no facilities, please come prepared for that!)
For those of you who are newer to this:
Oak bark peeling: the removal of bark from the small diameter oaks in the coppice coupes. This is an important part of the history of coppicing in the Lake Distrisct. The bark goes to the last remaining oak bark leather tannery in th UK, J&FJ Bakers. See here for more info: https://www.jfjbaker.co.uk/the-process. All proceeds go to the Bill Hogarth Memorial Apprenticeship Trust to support coppice apprentices to perpetuate and grow our economically sustainable regenerative woodland management & heritage crafts. We supply most of the bark that Bakers use & it’s nice to know you’ve had a hand in it…
Earthburn: The original way of charcoal making using only what the woods provide – stack of burning timber covered by vegetation & subsoil, carefully managed to limit oxygen & favour pyrolysis over combustion (hopefully!!!) This is the stone age technology that enabled the development of ore smelting, leading to metal tools which eventually enabled coal mining which gave rise to coke fired steel production on a scale that resulted in the industrial revolution, and ultimately to modern life as we know it… (For better or worse). Not many opportunities in the UK to get involved in this hands on since relatively few people have the skills & knowledge to do it successfully. Grab it while you can.
Here’s an idea: https://youtu.be/EtoA8AfrDg0?si=p4lgcAV7_Wukc8eS
Be prepared to get dirty!
Contact Dan Sumner for more info: 015394 37844 / [email protected]
Location of Moss and Heights Spring wood – Bouth
what3words – racetrack.apple.starters
Go down the side road by the White Hart Inn at Bouth , keep left at the junction signposted Hay Bridge go round a couple of corners till you see a gate with a byway sign next to it . This is the entrance to MAHS . We usually meet by the memorial bench about 400m into the wood.
Awsome!