Norfolk Conservation Corps - More Information

The History of the Corps: The Story So Far, Volume 2
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In Wayland and Honeypot Woods, for example, the period of rotation was seven years, and the harvested coppice poles were used in thatching. The reed is held in place by wooden pegs, called spars, made from coppiced material, and the sedge used on the ridges of the thatched roofs has a criss-cross system of hazel, from coppice, holding it in place.

At Matfield, in Kent, however, the period of rotation in the coppice there, chestnut coppice, is fifteen to twenty years, and the coppice poles become fence-posts. At Watery Grove, Hertfordshire, the hornbeam coppice was left for twenty or more years, as the coppicing there was simply to create an endless supply of firewood.

In the good ol' days of the original Corps, the Council for Nature Conservation Corps, the coppicing was done by volunteers using perfectly sharpened racing axes, the wood being so hard, and material was put onto the bonfires by standing back and throwing it, a hornbeam bonfire putting out so much heat that one could not get near it.

In other woods, and probably the woods already mentioned, coppice material was used to make tool handles, and seven-year coppice was used throughout the country to make hurdles for keeping sheep where it was desired to keep them. Coppice was also used to make faggots, as mentioned above in the task reports.

In the coppiced woodlands throughout the country, and throughout the long history of coppicing, the oak trees were always left to grow to maturity, these being called standards, and the woods are all called coppice-with-standards woodlands. The original forest was thus transformed into a much more open woodland with a varied age-structure, and making areas available for a much wider range of plants.

Before coppicing, only woodland specialists could live in woodland. These were plants, such as bluebell, lily-of-the-valley, cuckoo-pint, ramson, early purple orchid, and many others, which burgeon early in the spring, produce their aerial structures, flower, and set seed all before the leaf canopy closes over them, cutting out the full sunlight.

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