About Us
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Finding new uses for the traditional products of the countryside is one of the most sustainable ways to ensure that our woodlands and hedgerows survive, providing homes and food for red squirrels, dormice, birds, butterflies - in fact most of our familiar but declining wildlife benefits from this type of traditional management.
Frank was employed by the National Trust and then the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers on the Isle of Wight for 15 years before starting his own business. All our products are made from wood cut from a small piece of local coppice, or from wood cut out from layed hedges.
Coppicing
When woodland is coppiced, there is no need for replanting as the trees will grow back again, producing at least five times as many stems as they had before. By cutting every 5 - 7 years, light is allowed to reach the woodland floor, creating glades for butterflies, moths and other insects. Bluebells, primroses and other ground flora will also burst into life and carpet the glades.
Hedge-laying
When a hedge is layed (or layered), the large overgrown trees are cut half-way through the trunk and bent over horizontally. New growth then sprouts up from the sides of the old trunk to form a thick hedge that will keep animals in the field much more effectively than barbed wire.
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View Pencils, Staffs and other Gifts
View Games - Chess, Draughts or Chequers and Hnefetafl (The Viking Game)
View List of Displays of our goods on the Isle of Wight
View background Information about us and the origins of the wood used
View the Virtual Studio, including one-off or unusual items and new ideas in production