Drumtochty Forest Record Book 1927- 1957
Record Book is courtesy of Forestry Commission Moray and Aberdeenshire Forest District, Huntly.
See the PDF for the full list of records>
This is one of a few Forest Record Books that have survived since this system of recording details of 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. 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 Drumtochty Forest R3 staff record shows that the senior staff (Divisional Officers) who covered a number of Districts with many individual forests :
J F Annand from 1927; R G Forbes from 1933; H M Steven from 1934; F Scott from 1938; L A Newton from 1939.
District officers covering several forests including Drumtochty were:
D H Bird from 1927; D W Harvey from 1940; D H Bird from 1941; T H Woolridge from 1946; H A Maxwell from 1948; F J Donald from 1950; G A Dey from 1951; T A Robbie from 1954; J G Chrystal from 1957.
The foresters and foremen in charge were:
R R Donald from 1927; J Corbett from 1929; J A M Kennedy from 1933; T Allan from 1937; R Y Officer from 1938; A W Officer from 1940; E Grigor from 1940; J Hendry from 1949; W MacDonald (McDonald) from 1951.
The rest of the records chart the life of a forest over 30 or so years where the early programmes of planting seem to have run out of plantable ground fairly early on but the work shifted to tending, thinning and maintaining the acquired areas of established forest areas. Planting started again following the war time felling and with further acquisitions but it is notable that the early plantings 1927 onwards were still being beaten up in 1945 and later.
The Silvicultural Records R6 give a bit more detail on operations, planting methods, choice of species and weather events through the years.
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports, Northeast Scotland