FCA Magazine (FCAtoday) - Issue 23: August 2004
FC staff Retirement Association magazine. The content summary below was very kindly compiled by Diane Birkett, Bedfordshire. See PDF attachment below the text to view the full document. A total of 77 issues were completed between 1997 and the final issue in 2023.
Issue 23: August 2004
Articles
The FCA Visits the NYM
On the day after the AGM, around 50 members boarded the coach in Scarborough for the day visit to the North York Moors Forest District, hosted by the FDM Andrew Smith.
Where Could That Be?
An appeal for the location of Betty Kirkland’s photograph, taken in Scotland after the 1953 storm.
Forestry Training Schools
Harris Smith has sold all 125 copies of the FTS book, the last going at the Dean School Centenary dinner.
The Wind in My Face
Bridget MacCaskill, Don’s wife, has published a photographic record of his work, called ‘The Wind in My Face’.
More on Stress Laminated Timber Bridges (SLT)
More news on the bridges, which will interest all, including retired civils. The spectacular walk through Puck’s Glen in Cowal has 9 bridges, all of which required replacement. Three SLTs were installed quicker and at lower cost than conventional steel girder bridges. SLT sections have also been used to cross burns and bogs on the 7 Staines mountain bike route in the Scottish Borders.
A Drop Head meets Pyjama Stripes
Stan Forrester, now retired, has memories and some interesting stories from a tour with Silvia Crowe, now Dame Sylvia, the FC’s first landscape consultant.
My First Job
An article previously written by Ian Goodlet who died in May, describes his first job in 1950 as a Colonial Forest Officer in Trinidad.
Do You Know the Best Stand of Sycamore?
The search for outstanding trees is on! Do you know of any superior stands and individual trees? The British and Irish Hardwoods Improvement Programme (BlHIP) objective is to improve the quality of planting stock, so improving the potential of these trees to produce the best quality timber. Groups have been set up to promote 7 species which are commercially important in Britain and Ireland - ash, oak, silver birch, sweet chestnut, sycamore, walnut and wild cherry. The Sycamore Group is appealing for help to identify stands of top quality sycamores.
2004 AGM, Scarborough
News of the AGM which was attended by 23 members.
Rail Memories…
The article contains several amusing stories. Bill Sutherland recalled driving a diesel loco on a narrow gauge temporary railway in 1940 for the Home Grown Timber Production Department under John Macintyre. They were extracting pit props from Hillhouse Wood at Newcastleton.
David Foot says the narrow gauge railways were used on private estates in the First World War. Timber carriages were pulled along by horse. He has seen a 1920s picture of a horse-drawn carriage of logs going along the line that ran between Glenmore and Aviemore to link with the main railway system.
The two extracts were taken from a book of timberjill ‘reminiscences’ published in 1945 called Meet the Members. It is a pocket-size book with stories, photos and poems contributed by timberjills in England, Scotland and Wales who were members of the Women's Timber Corps. A similar book by members of the WTC in Scotland is "Timber" by Affleck Gray published in 1998 by the Tuckwell Press at East Linton as No 7 in a series called Flashbacks.
Wartime Stories
Roger Lines started with the FC in 1943 as a boy worker with Geoff Rouse who was then District Officer at Thetford. The Forester at Santon Downham gave him his first job. Roger spent most of his years in the Northern Research Station.
Advice to Newly Retired
Bill Sutherland, who has led a successful life in retirement, has advice for others facing retirement.
Want to be a Bodger?
Every year the Association of Pole Lathe Turners (APT) gathers for demonstrations of hurdle making, bowl turning, steam bending, bushcraft and wheel wrighting. Information is given on membership.
More on Swedish Timber Houses
In response to Russell Bruce’s request for information, Richard Illingworth, who was District Estate Officer in Cowal, gives information on the timber houses which were prefabricated and shipped to Scotland in kit form.
From the Editor
Notes from Richard Toleman.
Welcome to Retirement
David Bacon (Bury St. Edmunds)
Doreen Green (Brandon)
Ian Knox (Inverness)
Murdo MacLean (Strathcarron)
Edgar Moorhouse (Otterbourne)
Kathleen Phillips (Horsemonden)
Jim Anderson (Edinburgh)
Obituaries
Frank Henderson remembers Andy Gallacher who joined the FC as a CO in the 1950s.
Bart Venner recalls Bert Dover. They first met at a National Service Union conference in 1965.
Bart also knew Ian Falconer who spent almost all his career in the Dean and who died in March aged 92.
Mike Whitlock writes about Geoffrey Bland Flagg, who died in April.
Richard Illingworth contacted many friends to write of Ken Dacker who died in June aged 65.
Peter Ainsworth's daughter reported that he died in June at Newcastleton.
Gwyn Francis and Peter Clarke tell of George Murray, a former Forestry Commissioner, who died in March aged 79.