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The newsletter for former Forestry Commission employees Issue 70 - Summer 2020

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From the Editor......................................................................2

FCA AGM...............................................................................2

Forestry Commission - Endings?...............................................3

FC Anniversary 1969...............................................................6

Harry Oram............................................................................8

A Factor Reminiscing.............................................................11

The Royal Forestry Society....................................................16

The Royal Record of Tree Planting.........................................17

A Grim Memory.....................................................................20

Letters to The Editor.............................................................22

Life in Brief ..........................................................................25

Contact Details ....................................................................26

A decision has been made on the future of the FCA Annual General Meeting.

Read the announcement on Page 2.

FCA Today Issue 70 - Summer 2020


Sadly the AGM planned for this year has been cancelled. It was to have been hosted bythe North Wales Group in May but was postponed until September but has now beencancelled. With the current uncertainty about group gatherings the feeling among themembership was a general reluctance to attempt to have a meeting this year. As toconvening future AGMs, bearing in mind that attendance has been falling off in the pastfew years and the cost of hiring a venue and reimbursement of Group delegates' expenses,it was felt that the funds we currently hold nationally would be better spent in maintainingthe website. Therefore the AGM held in May 2019 in Thetford is to be regarded as our last.

However, the FCA continues through the local Groups who will continue to communicateand liaise via Richard Toleman who masterminds the FCA website and Charles Dickens,Liaison Officer, through contacts within Groups, Forestry England, Forest and Land Scotlandand Natural Resources Wales.

From the Editor

Forestry Commission AssociationAnnual General Meeting 2020



Well, that’s it then. The ForestryCommission which we have all come toknow, if not necessarily to love, has cometo an end in Scotland after 100 years. It isquite an event. It is universally known tothe public and there can be few foresterswho have not had dealings with theCommission. To those of us who werefortunate enough to have served in theCommission its end in Scotland cannot doother than bring sadness.

So has the Commission’s presence in Scot-land been beneficial? It was set up in 1919as a British national body with the primaryobjective to expand the forest estate inScotland and repair the damage done toour woodlands by the need for timber inWorld War I. It promptly set about theacquisition of land and the establishmentof new forests, and it has been fortunatein having been able to keep to thatstraightforward, but by no means easy,task for the last 100 years. As a ratherstrange government body it has escapedbeing done away with in times of crisis,and avoided being incorporated in largercountryside institutions. Another importantfeature in my opinion is that it has alwayshad a forester as the Director General asthe head of all operations. It is greatly tobe hoped that the new bodies set up inScotland to continue the Commission’swork will take note of this.

There do not seem to be figures for thesize of the forest estate (which was thenvirtually all in private ownership) inScotland when the Commission began itswork, but from a 1924 survey we mightassume that it was a little under one

million acres (405,000 ha). The currentfigure is 1,457,000ha (3,600,000 acres) ofwhich the Commission, now in the name ofits successor body Forestry and LandScotland, accounts for 32% or some469,000ha.

As a working forester I tended to look atforestry as a practical matter - there arejobs to be done, let’s get on with them - soI never really got round to articulating anyoverall objective, but on reflection I think Iwould now say it is to enhance thewellbeing of the countryside. This might be

Forestry Commission - Endings?

Continued on next page

George StewartPhotograph © copyright Kelly McIntyre.



achieved in three ways. First, to protectthe beauty our countryside offers andimprove its accessibility. Leaving aside wellknown areas, foresters have at theirdisposal large areas of natural beautywhere simple walks can be provided inpeace and quietness.

Secondly, the wellbeing of our wonderfulwildlife is an obvious priority. On good sitesmuch can be done, but on poor infertilesites in the ‘wet west’ we have to recogniseit is much more difficult to guaranteediversity. Patience may be required.

The third aspect of the countryside wherewe should aim to enhance wellbeing is theinhabitants who live and work there. Jobsare important and foresters can helpgreatly. If one hectare of productive forestcan yield about 400 tonnes of wood and ifyou consider the tens of thousands ofhectares planted in the last fifty years,foresters are responsible for a greatharvest, and, with restocking and forestmaintenance, a continuing one. The

number of jobs created in forestry is a veryimportant contribution to employment inthe countryside.

And what about the unintendedconsequences of this long legacy? I amsure that until recently no one gave anythought to carbon dioxide capture. But Iwonder how many million tonnes havebeen locked away in the Commission’s andprivate sector plantings?

As a long serving member of theCommission I thought that in this farewellnote I might give a few personalobservations on what I believe have beenreasons for its being a successful andreasonably contented body. The earlyCommissioners were landowners andforesters themselves and they seem tohave set out to run this new body just likeanother country estate. My time in theCommission covered the middle decades ofits one hundred years and from thebeginning I felt I was part of themanagement of a very large estate acting


Continued from previous page

Continued on next page



with a love of the land and a concern forthose who worked on that estate. Indeedit is perhaps not overstating the case tosay that its staff have been its making.Land owners, agents and engineersworked happily together, and aside frompossible dissatisfaction over promotion Inever came across anyone who did notenjoy their job. The afforestation figuresfor the Commission are considerable andamount to a worthwhile achievement. Andof course grant aid helped in theestablishment of forests and woodlands onprivate estates and land owned by otherbodies.

Another contribution of the Commission toScottish forestry has been in research.Planting of the more difficult sites throughinfertility and exposure has becomepossible. Indeed it could be said that thiswork was too successful as it led to theplanting of sites which would have beenbetter left alone. On the whole, however, I

think it may be said that the Commissionhas had a successful 100 years in Scotland.

Lord Lovat was the first chairman of thenewly formed Commission and Iunderstand he was very keen to getplanting going as soon as possible. This heachieved in Scotland by planting the firsttree on 9 December 1919, thus the originalCommission achieved its 100th year inScotland short of a mere few months. Iwas born three days later and I have donea little bit better by making the full 100years!

The author acknowledges the help of JudyNorwell in the preparation of this article.


Continued from previous page

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We have had many splendid photographsand articles of tree planting events tocommemorate the 100th FC anniversary. Afew items and a photo of staff at SilvanHouse for the 75th anniversary, but none ofthe 50th in 1969. As a young traineeforester fresh out of the Dean FTS, I hadbeen posted to Speech House Walk in theForest of Dean the previous year.

The 50th anniversary was commemoratedin the Forest of Dean, under Tony Joslin asDeputy Surveyor. There was an exhibitionin New Beechenhurst Inclosure on the siteof the old levelled colliery tip atBeechenhurst and on the surroundingopen ground with working exhibits inCompartment 505 P22 DF plantation to thenorth. This plantation had an interestinghistory. The previous 21 year old P00 cropof DF caught fire in the hot summer of1921 from a locomotive spark from theadjacent railway line and it was replantedthe following winter. Interestingly becauseforest fires do not readily travel downhill,there were and maybe still are, a few P00DF down in the south west corner of thissub-compartment.

Head forester Mike Dunn was the supremoallotted to the task of organising the wholethree day event to be held in early June‘69. The site lent itself extremely well withample parking for cars and coaches anddemonstration space for a wide range offorestry activities. These includedchainsaw felling of the 47 year old DF inCpt 505, extraction by County 754 tractorwith a double drum winch using slidingchokers and wedge eye socket andextraction with Igland double drum skyline

winch (see photo). There was also aMcConnell saw bench pointing stakes, anda Cundy peeler working on larch billets fora local firm called Formwood. All thismachinery contrasted with a workingpitsaw from an earlier era.

On the forest management side there wasa fencing demonstration using the recentlyintroduced 12.5 SWG high tensile springsteel wire and C8/32/6 sheep netting. Anarea of bracken and grasses had beenswiped earlier in the year and planted withNS, a staple planting species for the Deanat that time. I was given the herbicidespraying demonstration to organise, whichwas on the edge of the levelled pit area.

Herbicide representatives from BP hadplied us with plenty of free chemicals touse such as paraquat, diquat of thebipyridyls, ammonium sulphamate,propyzamide, asulam, atrazine andemulsifiable 245-T. These had beenapplied to the demonstration site some

FC Anniversary 1969



months earlier, so the resultant dieback ofgrasses and bracken could look realistic.

Applicators were hung on suitablemannequins provided by BP Silvapron Dand Silvapron T. These were CP15 andCP3, Cooper Pegler semi-pressurisedsprayers. By then the Falcon and ThreeOaks fully pressurised sprayers had beenconsigned to history. The CP sprayerswere demonstrated using different jetswhether for prep ground or weeding. Withthe latter we had on show the washing upbowl on the end of the lance for acontained spray or the cone to be placedover the tree to protect it. Only water wasused in the sprayers on the demonstrationdays. (See photo with school children andmyself facing the camera in shirt and FCtie.) Mistblowers for 245-T were aroundbut not included while the low volume andULV applicators were still with TechnicalDevelopment Branch.

The forestry spot gun for insecticidalstump treatment against the pine weevil(Hylobius) and the black pine beetle(Hylastes) was shown using the adaptedveterinary drench gun used on cattle andhorses. This backpack mounted sprayerwas ideal to quick fire a fixed dose ofinsecticide of 10 or 15ml at each stumpand could be used on clear fell sites atwalking speed.

The three day event, which tookconsiderable organisation by Mike and histeam, enjoyed glorious June sunshine andwas considered a great success. It wasconducted entirely by Dean staff with18,000 people attending, of these about6,000 were schoolchildren.

The Forest of Dean event matched theattendance figures at the 50th AnniversaryShow held at Margam Forest in SouthWales and also exceeded many other FC50th anniversary events.

FC Anniversary 1969



There was nooverlooking Harry whenI first saw this tall chapwith an enormouswhite crash helmet ashe rolled up to theNissen hut on a smallmoped at Ampfieldwood. It was a Monday morning in July1965 and I had been with the gang a fewmonths to do my practical training as aforester.

Arthur Griffen our ganger cast his eye overthis latest of a string of newbies wearilyand when Harry had removed his helmet Isaid to him, “If you stay with us till lunchtime you will be OK.” We were on weedingby hand with a rip hook in one hand and aforked stick in the other, bending downcutting the grass, bramble, bracken andblack thorn along the rows of small trees.Well he turned out to be quite a grafter fora 16 year old and not only stayed till lunchtime but remained in the ForestryCommission for the next 45 years, workinghis way around the United Kingdom up theranks of forester.

So often as we would leave the Nissen hutto walk down to the compartments wherewe were working, he would think of anappropriate song. It was all hand toolsthen and we had our 4 and 5 pound axesand would sing “Hay ho, hay ho, it's off towork we go” etc. The dozen of us on thegang enjoyed chasing each other up and

down the trees weeding in the summer.We had a break every couple of hoursdrinking a small amount of black tea in athermos cup while lying in a ditch by theride with great back support and feetraised. Harry had a great memory and alovely way of recounting stories, putting onthe various accents of actors he had seenon TV.

Harry lived in Eastleigh near Southamptonand I went on Wednesdays to an eveningcourse at the Tech to do O level German.Before the class I went for a swim tofreshen up at the Western Docks andwould pop into Harry's home on the way tothe class. Another of the gang lived in thesame road and he had a small motor biketo travel to work with. I had a grey minivan.

We had an open shed where we pointedfencing stakes with our axes when it rainedand when the chestnut stakes ran out weplayed darts in the mess hut. The tortoisestove would be lit and the windows wouldsteam up. One time a chap climbed on theroof and poked a holly bush down thechimney and we all fled the hut coughingand spluttering from the smoke.

Our dart playing became better and someof the gang would meet on a Thursdayevening in the White Horse in Ampfield. Iam amazed how many pints we woulddrink. The owner of the brewery lived in abig house opposite the pub and when wewent to the loo, we would think the drainsran under the road to the brewer to recycle.

Harry Oram



Harry and some of the gang came up to myhome near London for my 21st birthday.Quite a party and although it rained it didnot stop the fireworks. I let off a rocketunder an umbrella I was holding and itshot up into it and did a few laps beforejust missing the spectators. A lucky escape.

The gang was a happy lot and we made upnicknames for ourselves. Harry said hishand writing was not too clear and whenhe wrote the O it looked like a D so hisname changed to Dram. The tractor driverwas another tall chap, so of course hisnickname was Lank. The head foresterliked to give Lank extra jobs to do on hisgarden and as Lank was there so much wethought he had been “adopted”. Mynickname was “Swiggs” I cannot imaginewhy.

I met up with Harry in 1968 when I was onan exchange course at Faskally FTS andHarry had gone to help clear up the windblow at Crinan. The weather was blazinghot and we met at a pub. I phoned hometo wish my father a happy 60th birthday. Itwas the last one he had.

Every Christmas time for several years wewould have a reunion. It was a chance tobuy one of Arthur’s turkeys and a tree andplay darts. The sign of a wasted youth theysay. Over the years the meetings becameless frequent but there were still some.

One reunion was at Ampfield and welooked at the now massive red oak andNorway maple we had planted and weededalong Jermyns Lane near the Hilliersnursery. We parked in a gateway and

walked into the wood. Huge piles ofDouglas fir logs were stacked up and itmade us realise that the trees we hadplanted had now been harvested.

Over the years we met up and it was greatwhen Harry retired and bought a mini bus.He used it to give tours of the New Forestfor small parties. He took us to see theSway Tower built in the 1880s of nonreinforced concrete and told us its history.

Harry loved to research things and spin outthe stories. On another trip we went toThetford and visited the Grimes caveswhere flints were mined.

I did not recognise Harry at first when hecame in with his bride Karolina at thewedding in 2016. Due to chemotherapy hehad gone bald, but the grin was still there.He chose the date to be RemembranceDay 11th November so he would not forget.

Harry Oram



He had met Karolina at the Foresters Armsin Brockenhurst and a long lastingcourtship worked well for them both.

Karolina loved animals and Harry had asmall holding with about 20 dogs, cattle,horses, hens and goats. They got alongwell and Karolina brought her son Mischkawho was 10.

Harry had a battle with cancer for severalyears and would always return fromhospital after treatments, so Mischka was

very upset when Harry did not return afterhis last treatment.

Harry organised a wonderful weekend forme and four other former workmates lastSeptember when we stayed at WhitemeadPark. He had hired a flat and the attractionhad been the Dean Forester TrainingSchool Reunion Dinner. We enjoyedmeeting our contemporaries and recallingour past.

Harry was a great character and drewquite a circle of friends who will miss him.

Harry Oram

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In a pub in Basingstoke many years ago Iwas given a choice, Cardiff or Inverness.Earlier that day I had motored down fromLeicestershire where I was working as anassistant land commissioner with MAFFhelping to administer the FarmImprovement Scheme, in essence a thirdcapital grant to farmers to invest in newfarm buildings and land improvements tofurther the Government’s drive forincreased agricultural efficiency andproduction. My response to a trawl by theForestry Commission wishing to fill vacantarea land agent posts led me to aninterview with John Gwynn, a pub lunchand the choice.

So in July 1971 I headed north with mywife and a toddler son to a new job and lifein Inverness, then a comparatively weetown nestling at the head of the MorayFirth and at the end of a long and windyA9. Why Inverness? Simply because it wasa part of the world unknown to me and Iwanted to try something completely new …or was it John Gwynn’s salesmanship?

A little apprehensively I entered 60 ChurchStreet and bumped into David Seal on itsdoorstep. On discovering who I was, hiswelcome immediately put me at ease,whereupon I was directed to the office ofAndrew Bearhop’s the conservancy landagent and my new boss.

I soon learned that my post had beenvacant for some while because it was quitedifficult to get people to transfer that farnorth, but then again once people hadsettled in, they were most reluctant to

leave. Thus began my happy 26 years asan FC land agent or, in Scotland, a factor.

Coming from the deep south and being aborn and bred Englishman, I was a littleworried on how I would be accepted by thehighland Scots, particularly those in the farwest. “You’ll be the new factor then” wasoften the greeting of a soft spoken crofter.I will always remember the hospitality theyoffered. On conclusion of business withone such gentleman, he said “You’ll behaving a wee refresh afore ye go.” Naivelythinking that a welcome cup of tea wasbeing offered, it resulted in my downinghalf a tumbler of neat whisky at eleven inthe morning. I do not remember what Idid that afternoon.

For landlords a good rent review increasedtheir income, for tenants a revised rent didnot adversely affect their profit. The poorfactor is the pig in the middle. The art iskeeping his landlord happy, but not fallingout with the tenant. I often carried out arent review with no mention of figures atall, but both sides having a good idea ofwhat the rent should or might be. Successfor me was an acceptance by the tenant ofmy formal notice and my landlord beingcontent with the outcome.

In my early days with the FC, a majority ofthe workforce was housed often in FChouses, often in remote locations, e.g.Glenbrittle on Skye and Glenelg in theRatagan forest, with the forester-in-chargealso FC housed close by. Keeping thesepeople happy in their houses was quitetricky and it was where a good clerk of

A Factor Reminiscing



works, a land agent’s right hand man,comes into his own by treating all tenantswith a fair and even hand over repairs andmaintenance. The secret was keeping thelady of the house happy, or at leastcontent, with her home. The bane intaking up a new land agent post was theoften heard plea that your predecessor hadpromised, say, a new bathroom but he haddone nothing and what was I going to doabout it. “Had I promised a newbathroom?” I would reply. If the lady’sanswer was “No” I would quietly say thatwas my answer too!

Although I was not directly involved in theforestry side of the business, forestry rubsoff on you and you soon learn toappreciate the work done by your forestercolleagues. When out of the office, Iwould, if time permitted, call into a forestoffice (preferably at tea break time). Oftena “seeing as you are here” comment wouldpreclude some problem the forester hadregarding such as a boundary fence. Onone occasion I was out with Pat Garrow,chief forester, Rannoch, in the Black Wood,a remnant of the great Caledonian Forest,when he stopped before a magnificent“grannie” Scots pine and said it was hiscoffin tree. I never knew if his coffinboards were cut from that tree, but Ilearned something about the Caledonianpine forest and also the capercailzie thatlived there.

Such is the nature of the business that onenever remains forever in the same placeand the lure of promotion, i.e. extra cash,

meant a move to Perth in the old EastScotland Conservancy. It was during mytime there that the organisation of the FCbegan to change. When I arrived in Perth,there were 11 beat forests on my patch.When I left after 10 years in 1986, thesewere drastically reduced to three largeforest districts in the interests of efficiencyand cost saving. However it was for othersto determine how effective these savingshad been, but I did notice a gradual loss oflocal, on the ground knowledge, that wasinvaluable when sorting out boundarydisputes or claimed rights of access byadjoining landowners.




One regret was that I never got to occupya new district office in Aberfoyle. My regretwas that being responsible for the newbuilding, the land agent’s office had thebest outlook. Instead I finished up in theBlack Banana overlooking the Corstorphineroad and Edinburgh Zoo!

Clearly I had been enjoying myself out inthe sticks, so the powers that be thought Iwas better tied to a desk and I becamepart of Estate Management Division (EMD)working to Richard Illingworth. Sadly EMDis now assigned to the dustbin ofprogression (some people call it evolution).Much as I enjoyed, and now missed, thefreedom of having my own patch, myhorizon was greatly widened to the whole

of Great Britain. One of my responsibilitieswas keeping the estate code, the landagent’s bible, fully up to date. The fun wasdiscovering and trying to understand thesubtle differences between Scots andEnglish landlord and tenant acts andensuring my colleagues in the field couldfollow my revisions. I wonder if the codestill exists?

Looking back on my time in Silvan House,it is remarkable how attitudes havechanged towards the recreational use ofthe forest. There had always been anopen access policy provided you walked.A debate had started on allowing cyclistsaccess, but we had no idea then that thiscould develop into the popular mountainbike trails there are now in many of theforests. These days they even allow “GoApe” addicts to swing among the trees.Such goings on would have given this poorland agent sleepless nights regarding theFC’s legal liabilities in allowing this tohappen.

Which reminds me of my input towards theconstruction of the visitor centre at HighLodge in Thetford forest. All new capitalprojects used to come to the EstateManagement Division for evaluation andrecommendation on whether or not aproject should be funded. The High Lodgeproject landed on my desk and I regret, inhindsight, that I doubted it would succeedbecause the sums did not convincingly addup to it providing an adequate return onthe money to be invested. Judging by thesuccess it has been, I’m glad I wasoverruled, but at the time it was not a




foregone conclusion. And you can swingthrough the trees there too.

Desk computers arrived during my time inSilvan House together with very noisy dotmatrix printers. No longer did I draftletters and reports in manuscript but hadto learn how to type. My hand/eye co-ordination was not good but a sympathetictypist somehow turned my typos intoreadable documents.

Computerisation was all new at that time.I became heavily involved in setting up asystem whereby estates’ expenditurewould be linked directly into the new FC’saccounting system, so that each landagent could see expenditure against eachof his properties in relation to his budget.Not only expenditure, but also therecording and resetting of the capital value

of each of the properties every three years.A specialist firm was called in to devise aprogram and we set to work. Only it didn’twork and I will never know what reallywent wrong, but in those days I am certainnaivety was a major reason. Give me aclerk of works and a well thumbednotebook any day. The project? I believeit was ditched.

Then in 1997 I was tempted by the FC’searly retirement scheme, banked thegolden handshake and spent the next eightyears working with the National Trust forScotland – but that’s another story.

As for the FC, I’m glad I responded to thetrawl that crossed my Leicestershire officedesk all those years ago.


An iconic view of Inverness Castle and the River Ness




Here's a test for you.This picture was taken on the West Coast looking NW from Noride (anagram).

What can you see?

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Many members of the FCA will know of theRoyal Forestry Society (RFS). Indeed someare RFS members. At its heart the RFS is acommunity of people with a commoninterest in the science and practice ofsilviculture and a commitment to sharingknowledge and experience freely for thebetter health of our woods and forests.

People from all walks of life, from theinterested amateur to those with thegreatest expertise enjoy taking part in RFSevents, especially woodland meetings, andmore often than not learn something newon every occasion.

RFS members value the Quarterly Journalof Forestry (QJF) which is unique inbridging science and practice, and thefortnightly E-news, a comprehensive andwide-ranging digest of news and events.

In recent years the RFS has greatlyexpanded its outreach work. TeachingTrees helps primary school children tolearn that woods are not an accident ofnature but the product of great skill. FutureForesters encourages young people toconsider forestry as a career to help growthe pool of talent at all levels anddisciplines able to address the challengesand opportunities forestry faces in theyears ahead.

If the RFS sounds like an organisationwhere you will meet like-minded peopleand stay connected with forestry andforesters in a relaxed and enjoyable way,why not consider joining? Just [email protected] using the codeFCA2020 and you will receive a 25%discount on your first year’s membershipor £3.59 per month for the first 12 months.Offer ends 30 September 2020.

The Royal Forestry Society



As part of the celebrations tocommemorate the Coronation of GeorgeVI in 1937, trees were planted inRecreation Grounds and Parks throughoutthe British Isles, the Empire and even inthe United States of America.

A detailed record of the planting waspublished in book form in 1939 as “TheRoyal Record of Tree Planting” The frontpiece is below This is an enormous bookwhich lists all the plantings in Britain bycounties, broken down to parishes. Theplantings in the Dominions and ColonialEmpire are also recorded, as are those inthe United States.

The for the scheme is shownin this extract from the foreword of thebook (shown below), which mentions theKing George’s Playing Fields and impliesthat the tree planting is complimentary tothe provision of open spaces.

SUBMISSION TO THE KINGMay it please Your Majesty: Sir,THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE A NOTABLEtribute of loyalty and affection being therecord of trees planted and of other effortsto improve and create natural amenitiesthroughout the Empire in commemorationof your Majesty’s Coronation. The provisionof King George V Playing Fields, now rapidlyestablished in honour of our late Sovereign,is already enriching the country with a greatnumber and variety of open spaces.

Most of the plantings were in recreationgrounds, village greens, public and private

parks, on school premises and some onprivate land.

An important part of the scheme was theinvolvement of the local communities andthe trees were often planted by childrenfrom the local schools.

A wide range of different species wereplanted, the most frequent being common,scarlet and red oak, common and copperbeech, various flowering cherries and crabapple.

The Royal Record of Tree Planting



I visited all the sites in Farnham that werelisted in the Royal Record but found thatvery few of the trees had survived.In the Rowledge recreation ground ninetrees were planted:

1 Copper beech ( )

7 Japanese cherries(2 , ’Kanzan’ 2 ‘Shiro-fugen’ 2

1 Paul’s double thorn(

).One teak and two oak seats were providedand oak gates were constructed at theentrance to the recreation ground. Thecopper beech tree was presented by




Farnham Urban District Council and plantedby the school children. Unfortunately noneof the trees have survived.

However an avenue of purple beech (was also planted in the

grounds of Frensham Heights School. It ranalong the drive from the house to the lodgewhich, at that time, was the main entrance.

The trees were presented by past andpresent scholars and teachers. They wereplanted about 15yds apart and I managedto find 8 of the about 40 original ones. Thephoto shows one of the surviving treeswhich is now a fine specimen.

Last year a benefactor offered to donatesome trees to the school and the bursarrequested three copper beech that heplanted in open spaces in the originalavenue. These trees are growing well ascan be seen in the photos. It is hoped that

more trees will be planted in the future toat least partially restore the avenue.

In Farnham, trees were also planted inrecreation grounds of Badshot Lea, theBourne, Hale, Weybourne and Wreccle-sham, but again unfortunately very few ofthese trees have survived today.

Details of tree plantings for forty fourparishes in Surrey are listed in the “RoyalRecord”. It is a pity, as seems probable,that few of these trees have survived fromsuch an ambitious and prestigious scheme,as the trees would by now be fully grownand would be enhancing our local parks andsports grounds. I suspect that many havesuccumbed to developments, naturalcauses or old age.

There is a copy of “The Royal Record ofTree Planting” in the library at Alice Holtwhich gives information on tree plantingthroughout the country.


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What did five elderly men have in commonafter fifty years? You would never guess. Itwas WEEDING, weeding small trees in theforest. They came for a reunion in thevillage of Ampfield between Winchesterand Romsey and recalled the summermonths bending down with a rip-hook inone hand and a forked hazel stick in theother. The rip hooks looked like sickles andwere razor sharp, literally. Testing wasdone by shaving the hair on one's forearm.The small trees were in danger of beingsmothered by grass, bramble, bracken oreven wild rose that had to be cut awayfrom them without damaging the smalltrees.

The most difficult to see were Corsicanpine in rush grass because the needlesmatched the colour of the grass. The treeswere planted in rows at five or six footintervals. We swished the rip hook to andfro like tennis players bent double.Spotting the next tree, we used the forkedstick to hold the tree down as the rip hooksliced the weed growth. Woe betide us ifthe forester who was in charge found“Sheffield Blight”, a young tree cut off.

Our backs would ache, sweat would rundown our foreheads and sting the eyes,our hands were calloused and scratcheddespite wearing gloves. We developedgreat suntans and sometimes we foundbirds nests and would leave a clump ofweeds there to grow on. Each of us wasgiven a strip a chain wide, that is twentytwo yards. We marked the edges of ourstrips with a pole. The pole was eight footthree inches long and eight lengths of thepole made the chain.

The rows of trees usually ran at rightangles to the ride into the compartment.Sometimes the row would end at a fenceor a ditch.

The trees varied in species. They could bemixed oak and Norway spruce, but morecommonly it was Douglas fir. Thecompartments previously had big beechleft during World War Two to provide coverfor troops before D-Day but after the war,they had been felled for cash and notreplanted. All sorts of natural regenerationhad happened with birch usually being themost common.

A Grim Memory



During the winters the ground was clearedusing slashers and axes. The arisings wereburnt in huge fires that would have hotashes for days. Some birch were left toprovide shade for the new trees. Therewere also some big old yew trees. Theywere more than we could clear with axesso were left.Being on piece work and paid so much asquare chain, it was a lucky person whohad a yew tree in their strip.

The pricing was usually tight so that wehad to work hard and continuously to earnour day rate and then extra to get to piecework. The price set by the forester wasalways accepted with the proviso, “We willgive it a try”.

The hours were also fixed so one had tofinish by 4pm. The rate was capped so thatone could not earn more than threepounds a day. Agricultural wages werenever generous.

A Grim Memory



Dear Richard,

Re: Spring Issue of FCA-Today

Besides the interesting content of thisissue, several points arose of which I feltwere worthy of a comment.

The taster of James Ogilvie’s CentenaryEdition of Slasher evoked severalmemories in FCA-Today Issue No.69 andmore, now we can read the full editionfrom our screens.

The brown Slasher masthead with SpecialAnniversary Issue was probably fifty yearsof the FC and it was nostalgic to see othermastheads from different eras of Slasher.

In sorting out some papers in thebasement of The Queen’s House inLyndhurst, I came across a copy of theNo.1 Issue of Slasher. This was sent toLynne Dennison, Slasher editor at SilvanHouse to go in the FC archives. No banneror pictures just four pages of type; perhapsJames has come across other earlyeditions?

The commemoration plantation plaque of8th December, 1919 on page 3 has C.O.Hanson present at the inaugural FCplanting; he is also mentioned in PeterRalph’s article on the Dean FTS and hisbook ‘Forestry for Woodmen’ was still verymuch our primer, when at the Dean FTS 50years later.

The ‘Task Ahead’ as James puts it in hisresumé of the Ackland Report. The FC didindeed have many tiers of staff and layersof management, the 10 Divisions caughtmy eye.

The photo shows aDivision 5 foldermade in August1929 and used bythat Division forthe 1930/31 Esti-mates. In the late60s many of theseold fullscape sizefolders were beingthrown out fromfiling cabinets.

Peter Ralph mentioned the Giraffe Houseat Parkend – the version I heard was Deanstudents were sent to measure the heightof the tilt of the FC lorry and did so usingthe wrong side of the leather-boundRathbone 66’ log measuring tape, soreading off the height in ‘links’ (7.9 inches)and the answer was used to build theheight of the lorry shed in feet, hence thebuilding to this day, being about 35% tallerthan was necessary.

Finally, the Dean Oak and HMS Victory; theNaval ‘oak sawlog acceptance’ hammerdepicted on page 11, was unearthed nearthe Speech House in the mid 20th century.

The New Forest and the Forest of Berehave similar hammers and all three werebrought together for a ceremonial markingof a P1810 oak log in West Walk at theretirement of Jack Nicholson, the SouthDowns FDM in 1994.

Yours sincerely,

Letters to the Editor



Dear Richard,I have been scanning photos that I took,developed and printed at Gwydyr. They areall curled and not going to win any photocompetitions, but here are some of theIssacson Overhead winch that we used. Iwonder if those are still used or there arebetter systems for extracting over difficultground.

We also had a horse called Jock becausehe came from Scotland. He was cheap butthe transport to get him to Gwydyr was not.The trick with him was to hook up the loadof logs before turning him round in therack. He would then go galloping down tothe ride, poles flying all over the place.Cheers,




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Dear Richard,

I know this is a big ask, but I was wondering if any of your memberswould know where I could find out the starting dates of both my fatherand grandfather in the Forestry Commission. Both retiring as headforesters.

My father was Ernest Jones who retired in 1980 at Bagots Wood,Staffordshire. I know he was at the Forestry College at the Forest of Deanin 1939.

My grandfather was George Jones who retired in 1963 at Southrey Wood,Lincolnshire. I believe he had something to do with the setting up of aforestry station at the Greystoke forest, Cumbria. I know he was inlumber haulage in 1919 after World War 1.

Edwin Jones. [email protected]




Life in BriefBill Slee’s father in law, JOHNDYCE, has just died aged 100.

He went to Forest School inPeebles when he returned fromthe war in India.

Apart from pre-war training onSeafield Estate, he spent hisworking life as a forester inEaster and Wester Ross andfinally at Newton Nursery withForest Research helping withfield trials.

He was a gentle and quietman, an outstanding field nat-uralist and one of that post-

war breed of foresters whowere strongly motivated bywanting to make the Highlandsa more productive environ-ment and a more prosperousplace.

I am not sure that, onreflection, he was proud ofseeing Sitka spruce planted onplaces like Kintail and LochMaree.

He was ahead of his time inwanting multipurpose forestry,but he was sure that forestryhad an important role in the

redevelopment of northernScotland.

Keith Miller contacted me withthe sad news that JOHNGRIEVE has passed away.

He attended Faskally FTS from1964-66 and was a headforester at Lorne FD prior toretirement.

Post retirement he wasengaged as a woodland officerin Perth & Argyll Conservancy.

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FCA Today is an FCA productionEditor: Richard Toleman, Manuel Stables, Linlithgow, EH49 6JF. Tel: 01506 845575. e-mail: [email protected]

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If there are enough articles, the Winter issue of the FCA Today magazine will beavailable on the www.fca-today.com website in December 2020.

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The publication dates of the FCA Today magazine are: - Spring edition: April;Summer edition: August; Winter edition: December.

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Answer to the poser on Page 15. It's taken above Dornie looking across the Kyle Rheatowards Kyleakin. Applecross is in the far distance. Balmacara forest lies on the hillsideto the right and Sgurr na Coinnich is across the water to the left. How did you do?

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