Benmore Forestry students in Ardintinny Nursery
This one of a set of images from photocopier scans and is courtesy of the staff at Glenbranter Forest Office.
Little was known of the details of people apart from a couple of names written on one of the images but one former student Bob Boyd has been tracked down to Northern Ireland and has provided the following information:
‘‘The photo in Ardentinny nursery of seedbed preparation is of Ian Reid (1958/60) on the left, and standing up on the right is John Drewitt (1957/59). Ian was from Ayrshire and John was from Norfolk??
Glenfinart house in the background was a holiday home or hotel in those days, unfortunately it was badly damaged by fire in August 1968 and was demolished some years later except for the tower.’’
Note the tools for smoothing and levelling out the seed beds prior to sowing of seed. The soil has an unusual grey colour but much of this may be due to poor colour reproduction of the photocopier. The pegs in the ground no doubt have been measured off to accommodate the standard width of seed beds plus access alleyways. The string winder holds the cord which runs the full length of the proposed bed and allows the straightness and width to be maintained over its full distance. The seed beds extend to the mature trees on the right hand side but in the middle there are a one or two seed beds under some shading construction. In this case this appears to be made from conifer branches with ends stuck into the alleyway and reaching over across the bed to a post and wire support in the middle alley.
Was this a common design before the use of laths?
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