The Hampshire Coppice Craftsmens Group

"Putting Life into your Landscape"

This was a big event for the Group although as you will find bellow not without its Problems:

After the New Forest Show Tony Hales

For me the New Forest Show 2008 was a long standing minor ambition ticked off; after twenty years a fairly regular visitor, at last I’ve been on the inside, demonstrating, and selling, gate hurdles I made myself.

Down on the Village Green the Hampshire Coppice Group had a pretty good turnout. To the left of the Bandstand we had Dave Lister, spars and pimps; yours truly with miniature rustic gate hurdles and shingles; Neil Hill, hurdles ranging from miniature wattle to full size gates; Alan and Jo Waters offering charcoal, besoms, pimps; and on the Wednesday Les and Toni Brannon with a mix of easy to take home coppice products. On the other side of the bandstand were the pole lathe exponents; Pete Jameson, John and Kester Westcott, and Mark Allery; taking turns to turn because we only had space to set up two lathes. And, just for auld lang syne, Dick Apps visited on Wednesday to make sure we
were making good use of his old pitch!

Almost out of sight beyond the pole lathe shelter were Tim and Becca Cracknell with their pyrographed twig pencils, pens and more. Peter Lane joined us on the Thursday and dispensed wisdom from his lifetime of coppice working.

It was a busy three days but worth doing – I think everybody found the show useful in terms of trade, contacts and networking. The two bands playing turn and turn about made conversation difficult much of the time but we always had a lot of people passing by.

The new shelters were very smart, but we had to use them as separates. If we want to deploy the complete display package, shelters, gazebo and exhibition artefacts it will require early negotiation with the NF Show people for the right shaped space in the right place. What we had this time was very ad hoc, made good use of the space available but did not shout out “We are the Hampshire Coppice Craftsmen’s Group!”

Notes from a Winters Blog Mark Allery

One of the highlights of last season was attending the New Forest Show for my first time. For many years (and decades) the polelathing pitch at the show was more than filled by Dick Apps. With his pole lathe and caravan he became something of a legandary figure at the New Forest and other shows.

Despite the rain there was a good crowd (mainly for the band - an offshoot from the wurzels, known as the New Forest Plonkers - rather than for us, it has to be said).

This year the Hampshire Coppice Craftsman Group was present in force. With hurdle makers, broom and pimp (a kind of birch firelighter) makers as well as many as four pole-lathe turners on hand to fill the gap left by Dick. But it's hard to fill his shoes as I learned once the show started and I had to field constant questioning on his whereabouts and health.

We were delighted that Dick was able to join us on the Wednesday and we even managed to coax him into showing us how it should be done, when he had a go on my lathe for a while.

Dick was able to stay around long enough for me to get the benefit of his advice. It was a real pleasure and I look forward to attending the show in the coming year.

Taken from http://woodlandantics.blogspot.com/          

Thanks to both Mark and tony for allowing me to use these articles.