Coppicing in the Millenium Spinney on 28th November 2024
The Spinney Working Group have had another successful Hazel coppicing day in our Millennium Spinney.
This time I managed to rustle up a few more volunteers – so many thanks to David Burrows, Hilary Glanville, Jens Buus and my glamorous assistant, Colin – so we felt able to tackle 2 hazel trees, as we had coppiced the biggest one last time.
David & myself started work on the hazel next to the one we coppiced 3 weeks ago, and Catherine, Hilary & Jens tackled one of the other hazels; Colin soon joined us to sort out all the wood we had harvested, for use as stakes & binders, or brash to use later to build the nest.
I think David rather enjoyed putting his Ryobi “Nibbler” Jigsaw to the test, it managed most of the smaller branches, then a change of blade allowed him to cut some of the bigger ones; we did need the manual pruning saw for the last few really chunky branches where Catherine showed us how to do a proper felling cut by cutting out a wedge or gob on the side you want the branch to fall, then cutting the other side to meet the back of the gob; my job was to push the branch safely to the ground and not hit anything or anyone which I managed successfully. Catherine was very pleased with our handiwork, not bad for a couple of novice coppicers.
Colin brought his camping stove round to the Spinney so we had a couple of tea-breaks with freshly brewed tea & coffee to go with the usual biscuits and some Jamaican Run Mince Tarts that went down very well.
There was not so much leafy growth to build the nests with this time as most of the leaves have now fallen, so the nests this time are more woody than leafy, but they will still keep humans and animal out whilst protecting the tree as it starts to re-grow.
By the end of the day, and it was getting rather dark by the time we finished, we had some tired volunteers and 2 beautifully coppiced trees with their protective nests protecting them; we had harvested over 60 stakes and binders for the Canal & River Trust and some more thinner poles for the Allotmenteers.
Click on an image to see the full-size image in the gallery.
David starts to tackle our tree 
Jens & Hilary in action on their tree 
Hilary & Jens’ tree is coming along nicely 
The coppicing is progressing well 
Catherine deciding what branch to tackle next & Jens with his trusty loppers 
David & Sue – teamwork in action 
Look at that perfect Gob cut 
David was very pleased with his 1st coppiced tree … just check out those Gob cuts 
Colin starts putting the stakes in as a support for the nest-building 
Sue starts to weave the brash around the stakes as she starts to build the nest around the hazel stool 
Some interesting mushrooms we found in the Spinney 
One perfectly coppiced stool – well Catherine was very pleased with our handiwork 
Some of the damage to the tree caused by the original plastic mesh 
The tree has actually grown around the plastic mesh 
Not sure what we found wrapped around the tree here – looks like some thick fabric ??? 
Colin starts to build the nest around Hilary & Jens’ tree 
Crosssed branches have caused damage to the hazel tree 
Nest build around the hazel stool to protect the tree as it regrows and regenerates 
The Coppicing volunteers admiring their handiwork – Colin, Sue, Hilary, Jens & David 
Bean poles and stakes for the Gayton Allotmenteers 
Firewood for use once the wood has been seasoned for a couple of years 
The harvested stakes and binders for the CRT – you can see how late we were working …. 
And the next day … The first nest is still standing …. and protecting the hazel stool although not so green & leafy now 
Not such a leafy nest this time … most of the leaves had fallen from the trees 
We’re getting pretty good at this nest-building now 
Admiring our handiwork the morning after the coppicing 
Bean poles harvested for the Gayton Allotmenteers 
A good harvest of stakes & binders for the Canal & River Trust’s Hedge-Laying projects 
The recently turfed Hibernaculum looking good in the morning sunshine
Spinney Working Group
A Working Group of the Gayton Parish Council