Mallinson Ltd - woodwork courses in Dorset. Perfect short breaks for everyone.

We've over six months of experience of running courses down here in Dorset now, and the focus of this issue of the newsletter is very much on what we've learned so far.

Coming Back

This is something we really hadn't bargained for - it just didn't occur to us. However, in the last few weeks we've had a few contacts saying it would be good to come back to do the same course again - to hone skills, to make use of the tools and equipment, to simply enjoy working out in the woods again. And of course that's great news - it's great to meet people again, and it's really nice to know people are getting a lot out of it and want to take it further.

Thinking about this interest, we've decided to offer repeat course bookings at a 20% discount off the full price. Our logic is that anyone coming on the same course for a second time is going to require less tuition than someone doing it for the first time, so it seems only fair to charge less.

If you've done a course with us and would like to do it again, get in touch direct (phone or email) to book at your special discounted price.

You And Your Friends

Another thing we've realised is that course administration costs money! No, we knew that all along really. What we do want to do though, is recognise that two or more bookings at one address, on one invoice and paid by one cheque costs us less to process than the same number of individual bookings. Thus, from now on we've decided that if you want to bring along your partner, friends, relatives, colleagues from work, everyone from your club, your pub (or anyone else), then all second and subsequent bookings made by the same person at the same time and to be settled on one invoice will enjoy a 10% discount.

Call us old-fashioned but, again, it just seems fair.

Winter Reading

In our view (and that of many others) Mike Abbott's 'Living Wood' is THE book about green woodworking. And that's it - that is all there is to say about it! If you're interested in green woodworking, read this book. As it says on the cover, it deals with everything from buying a woodland to making a chair.

Now, good as it might be, it's not often stocked in your local WH Smiths or whatever, so I'm pleased to say we're now able to supply it direct - we've just added it to the 'Tools and Equipment' section of the web site. Strongly recommended - good for those evenings where you just want to stay indoors.

Winter In The Woods

But, if some winter evenings make you want to stay in, the same is not true of winter days. Yep, the January bowl carving course was held with a good frost on the ground and snow forecast for the second morning.

OK, the snow didn't happen and day two was a lot warmer than day one, but it was still an excellent test of what the woodland workshop is like to work in on a real winter's day - and the answer is: toasty! As we reported back in December, we've built log walls around the main working area and these, together with several braziers, kept everyone as nice and warm as we'd hoped - no problem at all.

So, we know autumn in the woodland workshop is beautiful as the trees turn and leaves drop; we know spring will be wonderful as it all comes back to life again. We know summer is gorgeous in the dappled shade and now we know that there's something absolutely magical about working next to a log fire in the trees on a cold, crisp winter's day.

And what that all means is that I can say, hand on heart, come and join us at any time of the year - whatever the season is and whatever your favourite season is, I'm sure the woodland workshop won't disappoint.

And I think that's just about it from me for February, before I hand over to Carolyn and Mace.

(I know, last month I said I'll be bringing you news of some new courses for later this year in this edition but we've had a couple of last minute brainwaves on that front ... details in March, I promise!)

Thanks for reading.

Guy and the team

Tree Of The Month: Hazel

It has been a famously mild winter so far and precocious signs of spring have been reported since before Christmas, but for a true, early sign that the land is waking from its winter sleep get out into the lanes and woods from mid-January - right now is a good time - and look for the long bright yellow catkins of Corylus avellana - the hazel.

Hazel is an important tree for us coppice workers. In a commercially-managed coppice, the closely-planted hazel trees are traditionally cut to a low stump, or stool, on a rotation of 7 to 15 years. The tree then re-grows from this stool as a mass of straight, flexible poles. As a tree its maximum life span is about 60 years but when constantly coppiced hazel can survive 600 years and still produce a good crop of poles.

Unfortunately much hazel coppice was neglected and left to go out of rotation as industrialisation and changing farming practises took away the market for coppice products. Old, overgrown hazel coppice can be seen throughout England, especially on steeply sloping land too awkward to put over to other usage; look out for woodland made up of clumps of hazel with many small and medium poles coming from a large, low stump. Also commonly seen is 'coppice and standards' with larger single trees, of oak or ash, widely spaced between the stools.

But the tide is turning, and across the country overstood coppice is slowly being returned to productivity. Sometimes this is for wildlife: the dormouse is rare and can thrive in managed coppice which offers a better food supply; the dramatically increased light levels in the first three years after coppicing result in a flush of flowers on the forest floor and a better habitat for small mammals and birds such as nightingales.

Coppice workers have also benefited from the re-valuing of traditional rural skills for a new leisure or heritage market; hazel had many uses, including hurdles, or portable sheep pens; these are now commonly used as decorative garden fencing. Barrel hoops, walking sticks, fishing rods and whip handles are rare uses now, but hazel spars are still the best for fastening the thatch on a roof, and hedge laying, another heritage craft, requires stakes (thick sticks) and binders (long, whippy sticks) to shape and secure the hedge. One final traditional usage is the forked or split hazel stick for dowsing; although modern-day practitioners may use metal or plastic rods, hazel is still a popular choice when searching for water.

Carolyn Brightwater

In The Woods This Month - Mud and Brash ... and Horses

I've spent the majority of this winter renovating a much neglected ash-over-hazel coppice woodland, last cut in the inter-war period. For both Phil (my partner-in-grime) and me, patience and morale was running low owing to the relentless and repetitive coppicing of hazel, in all weathers, on a progressively muddier gradient. Mud and brash, mud and brash, mud and brash, mud and brash ...

So, when the hazel felling reached completion both our mood and pace was lifted by bringing Phil's horses into the woods (Merry, Welsh cob x Welsh mule and Charlie, Clydesdale x Cob) to begin extraction. Aside from the hectic pace dictated by ¾ of a tonne of horse charging through the woods with often ¾ of a tonne of wood behind it, several things became immediately obvious to me, being neither a 'horsey' person, nor having worked with them before:

- firstly, how efficient a means of extracting usable product from a woodland they are. A horse works at human-scale - a pace which allows the woodsman to recognise and realise the highest value product in any given piece of timber - and can still shift upwards of five tonnes a day.

- how completely low impact they are - unlike the ecological destruction often caused by heavy machine extraction and their tonnage-led commercial mores, a horse treads lightly upon the planet leaving nothing behind but footprints and fertiliser!

- how elegant a working horse is - somehow they just seem 'right' in a woodland and obviously enjoy their work. Their noticeable aura of pride after a days hard graft was genuinely suprising.

I am a definite convert to working horses and am looking forward to working the remainder of the season with them.

Mace Brightwater