Forest Record of Kirkhill Forest, Aberdeenshire
Record Book courtesy of Forestry Commission Moray and Aberdeenshire Forest District, Huntly.
This is one of a few Forest Record Books that have survived since this system of recording the details of the forest work in each new forest was changed after the early 1950s. Two copies of the book were maintained one at the forest and the other by the District Officer but in reality both were maintained by the District Office as it was only they who had a typist. It is likely the forester had to provide a written summary for the DO to work off.
The hard back cover had a sophisticated and durable locking system to retain the loose leaf pages as they were added when each year’s work was completed. The pages came in several categories R3 – Staff Record; R4 – Annual summary of Operations; R6 Silvicultural Notes by Year; R7 – Plantation History. Looking over the forms and also the print run details on their bottom edge this system of recording work was only initiated in 1935 and ended circa 1953. No doubt these forms were themselves summarised by Division, Country and Nationally. The form R1 still survives today as the annual planting record and always had its own folder.
The Divisional Officers covering this part of the Conservancy are named in the Record as J F Annand 1922, R G Forbes 1933,
H M Steven 1934, F Scott 1938 and Acting Div Officer L A Newton 1939, DW Harvey 1940 after which the record ends.
The District Officers named are I Clark 1922, J W Mackay 1923, D H Bird 1925, J K Leven 1926, R C Smith 1928, D V Murray 1932, A Watt 1935, T H Woolridge 1938, I Gillespie 1940-46 when the record ends.
The Foresters/Foremen are named as A H Hannay 1922, L McConnell 1923, J D MacRae 1925, J M Kennedy 1926, T Allan 1929, W MacDonald 1930, J A Lamb 1939, W MacDonald 1944 - 46 when the record ends. All in all the forest had a large turnover of senior staff in its first 24 years.
The forest operations record and history shows that quite a large area of existing forest was acquired but almost all of it was felled during the war. The planting programme started off initially at over 100 acres per year but quickly slowed down as land ran out and it was not until after the wartime fellings that planting restarted in sizable areas again on felled sites. Some felling by Charles Henderson of Ellon occurred in 1936 but in the thinning operations there is no mention of contractors and forestry employees may have been done some of the work.
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports, Northeast Scotland