Although independent woodland workers, says Tom, “we come together in partnership with the Forestry England who manage the Forest, to coppice the blocks of Sweet Chestnut. In the winter we coppice the trees and later in the year, when the ground conditions allow, we come in and convert the timber into saleable products, generally for agricultural and domestic fencing products”.
“The beauty about coppicing, says Tom, is that it regrows time and time again and is a renewable resource, promotes structural diversity in the forest that benefits wildlife, such as the nightjar. The fencing we supply is island produced providing low timber miles and supports the rural economy”.
The vast majority of Brighstone forest, planted between the 1920s and 1940s, is Beech, Sweet Chestnut with some Ash, growing on chalk and clay. The team coppice the only small areas of Sweet Chestnut coppice planted on the more acidic gravel soils, on top of the hills to the east of the forest. They are currently the only operation commercially producing chestnut fencing products on the Island.
The products are sold through Tom Murphy’s business and more information can be found at www.tdmurphy.co.uk.
Jim starting to cleave the timber using a Froe in the centre of the log
Once a split has been made a wedge can be used to split the log into two halves
a successful split
The sweet chesnut can be further split using the timber wedges
The sweet chesnut is now split into four lengths.
All three bring their own skills and knowledge to the team. Jim, who is adept at splitting 10-foot logs into cleft fencing rails says on a good day he can convert 50 – 60 rails from the felled timber.
“Other than quad and trailer, and some chainsaws, all the work is done by hand says Tom, it’s physical work, and none of us need a gym membership.”
Timber is removed from the woodland using a mini timber trailer crane towed by a quad bike, which allows navigation among dense stumps without damaging regrowth—something larger forestry machines would cause. The trailer, essential to the process, was funded by the Farming in Protected Landscapes grant via the Isle of Wight National Landscape team.
The sweet chesnut fencing posts ready for collection
This block of forest is largely sweet chesnut
