Novice wood owners, Gordon and Enid Chambers, give their first impressions. After they'd finally "moved in", did it live up to expectations?....   Read more...

Evan Davidson flies birds of prey in and around the Yorkshire area.  He explains how his interest in falconry brought him to us … I first got involved with Woodlands.co.uk about four years ago when I noticed one of their signs beside woodland they manage near Harrogate. The local area holds good rabbit numbers and the bird I was flying at the time, a female Harris hawk, needed to learn to fly in close tree cover. Read more...

There is nothing more satisfying than being able to catch and prepare your own supper.  Alex McKenzie, bushcraft expert, demonstrates how to catch and clean a trout in the first part of the Woodlands tv Bushcraft Series.  Read more...

The bramble is a common native species. It is found in many different types of plant communities from woodlands, to heaths and dunes though it is not found in native pine woodland, and is generally more common in lowland than upland woods. Read more...

Everyone knows that cricket is the sound of “leather on willow”, but it’s not any old willow.  Cricket Bat Willow is a variety all of its own – Salix alba ‘Caerulea’.  This fast-growing and straight-stemmed variety of willow produces wood that is tough but lightweight and does not shatter easily - ideal for cricket bats. It’s a skilled business choosing the best wood, and there is a market for good quality cricket bat willow timber.  Logs are split into “clefts” and shaped into the rough bat shape or “blade”.  The ends are then waxed to prevent the wood drying out and splitting. The wood is carefully air-dried over a period of 12 months to the correct moisture content and the blades are graded according to grain, colouring and any small blemishes.  From Grade 1, which is the very best, blemish-free wood, to Grade 4, which will play just as well but will have more blemishes.  The premium bat blades are the whitest with the closest grain.  “Blemishes” on the face of a bat will be variations in colour, inconsistencies of grain, and “specks” - tiny grains of grit taken up into the tree from the soil.  Tiny, “living” knots are confined to the edge of the blade, and larger, “dead” knots are cut out and filled and will only appear on the reverse of a blade. The blades are then passed on to the cricket bat maker.  To make the wood able to withstand being hit by a cricket ball at high speed, it is pressed at a pressure of up to 2,000 lbs but it a matter of judgement for the bat maker.  Too little and the bat will break when used, too much and the wood will be unworkable.  A handle is spliced on and the blade is finally ready for shaping, done by hand with a drawknife, spoke shave, planes and a practiced eye.  A final sanding and coat of wax finishes the job.

In the days before plastic containers, the “trug”, a wooden basket, was the common way of carrying and measuring.  They came in every size, from tiny up to a bushel.  Although they were found all over the country, nowadays they are particularly associated with Sussex and Thomas Smith of Herstmonceux who “reinvented” this ancient style of basket in the 1820s using local materials.  Queen Victoria made the distinctive, shallow garden baskets we are familiar with fashionable when she bought some at the Great Exhibition of 1851.  Read more...