Woodland Industries

Since time immemorial man has relied on our forests to satisfy all manner of his needs using several different wood for different products. The most widely used wood was oak ,ash, birch, alder. hazel and for gunpowder shrub juniper known locallyas Savin. At first woodland product were to satisfy local needs but as the larger towns and cities grew so did the demand for all manner of woodland products providing employment for thousands of workers nationally.

Besom broom makers Finsthwaite Lane, Backbarrow.

 

COPPICE WOODLAND

Coppicing is the regular cutting or harvesting of young trees in a particular area, usually on a regular cycle of four or five years.  Saplings were cut close to the ground, the new growth formed a number of stems, after four or five years this new growth was then cut and the poles used for making hurdles, if the coppice wood was hazel the twigs were used to make besom brooms ” the brooms Witches flew on “ ideal for sweeping leaves. oak spelk baskets or swills were made from coppice wood, and the bark which was peeled from the oak was sold to the Tanning industries. From the larger and older growth barrel stave’s were made, bobbins were turned and fencing poles cut. Hazel Twigs were also used to make fenders to protect the side of ships when docking.

 CHARCOAL BURNING.  In the Leven and neighbouring RuslandValley’s the manufacture of charcoal was an extreamly important woodland industy. The Backbarrow iron furnace used charcoal as fuel and the Gunpowder mills at Low Wood and Black Beck used large quantities of charcoal which was one of the three raw materials used to manufacture gunpowder. 

A Charcoal burner with his family outside a well built turf hut known as a Soddy on Backbarrow heights.

Charcoal pit-steads were built on the site wear the wood had been cut, because the burning needed constant attention the burner’s built shelters nearby and remained at the pit-stead day and night until the burning was completed. Charcoal is made by building a circular mound of poles with a central chimney flue, the pile of wood could be anything up to four meters round and two meters high. Once built the pile was covered with a thick layer of earth tamped down with a spade, the pile was ignited by dropping a burning torch down the central chimney flue, and once lit the flue was also closed and covered with earth.the fire smoldered for many days and had to be constantly watched to ensure the pile did not burst into flame, any sign of fire on the outside was immediately covered with earth to stop any air getting in. Those tending the pit-stead worked in shifts constantly tending to the smoldering pile. When the burn was completed the earth covering was removed from the pile and the charcoal bagged to be taken from the woodland to either a store or direct to the buyer, perhaps the Iron Furnace or the Gunpowder mills at Low Wood and Black Beck Bouth. Today the foundations of charcoal burners huts can still be found around the Leven and Rusland Valley wooded hillsides, on Colton Heights shrub Juniper which was planted especially for making Gunpowder charcoal can still be found growing. 

SWILL MAKING.The manufacture of oak baskets ( Spelks) or swills to use the local name was for century’s one of the major woodland products in demand all over the UK and beyond.  Oak poles up to two three inches in diameter cut from coppice trees were first stripped of their bark  and then split using a special axe known as a “lat-axe”into strips about 3/16 of an inch thick which would be woven to form the swill basket. 

Oak Spelk baskets localy known as Swills. Backbarrow 1920.

The basket rim was locally called a “bool” and made from hazel or ash wood which was kept in the round and not split. The wood for the bool was boiled for a few minutes to make it more pliable, then using a vice (or mare) to hold it each end of the bool wood was tapered using a two handle draw knife. 

The bool was bent into its final oval shape with tapered ends overlapping and bound, this bool would now form the rim of the swill. Swills were so strong that a grown man could stand on an upturned swill without it collapsing. These extra strong baskets had many uses in the home, in industry and in all branches of the armed forces, the demand declined with the discovery of cheap plastic’s, but in Backbarrow and Bouth villages swills were still being made in 1956 . 

BOBBIN MILLS. Coppice wood was also used for making bobbin reels of various sizes. In our area we had two working bobbin mills one at  at Spark Bridge and the other at Stott Park which is no longer in production but open for visitors who can watch wooden bobbins being made in the traditional way. The green wood was kiln dried before being cut to a standard working size using a circular saw, the wood was then turned to shape on a manually operated lathe like machine spinning at very high speed, by simply pulling a leaver to bring the pre-shaped cutting tool into contact with the wood bobbins were turned very quickly. Eventually large bobbins reels were made at Spark Bridge with plastic ends some were made with aluminium spindles and wooden ends. In the end like the swilling industry plastic took over and today very few bobbins are made from wood and in the valleys there is no bobbin making at all.  

Coopers.For centuries barrels were the only containers available for holding large quantities of material either liquids or solids, barrels are compleatly water proof making them ideal for transporting goods by sea that had to be kept dry such as gunpowder, sugar and flour 

Coopers showing their tools and products at Low Wood Gunpowder Mills, Around 1920

The Low Wood gunpowder mills had a large coopers shop making kegs and barrels of all sizes as can be seen in the photo. Barrel stave’s were cut and shaped by machines on site powered by water, the hoops were made from Hazel or Ash wood which was soaked in water for several hours to make it more flexible. Somesmall kegs that held one pound of gunpowder were made and several progressively larger sizes up to half a huundred weight. The finished kegs were lined  with linen and taken to the Dusting House (see gunpowder process) to be filled, once filled with powder the wooden lid was fitted and only the head cooper was authorised to do this very skilled part of the job and ensure that the lid was water tight.