FCA Magazine (FCAtoday) - Issue 51: Spring 2014
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 51: Spring 2014
Articles
The Demise of the Alice Holt Group
Mike Whitlock looks back at the launch of the group in 1989 when Ron Brown became the first chairman. Lena Birchall was on the Group Steering Committee. Both were still active in the Group when it closed on 31st December 2013. Reasons for the closing of the Group are given.
AGM and Discussion Paper on the future of the FCA
The FCA AGM is being organised by Ian Blake and will be held in Neath on 13th May 2014. The future of the FCA will be discussed during the AGM and a copy of the Discussion Paper is included in the Spring 2014 issue of FCA Today.
How I Avoided the Couch Potato Syndrome
Jim Christie says he was determined not to become a ‘Couch Potato’ when he retired from the FC in 2002. His retirement coincided with the Woodland Trust’s Glendevon project aimed at turning the clock back by 600 years and re-creating the natural woodland that had existed before the Ochils had been cleared of woods and used for the grazing of sheep. Since Glendevon is virtually on his doorstep, he signed up as a Voluntary Warden. He gives details of the project.
Early Days as a DP at Kielder
Ted Baldwin writes about arriving at Lewie Camp in 1940 on completion of a year’s forest worker training at Birch Hall in North Yorkshire. He had been presented with his Certificate of Competence and a single ticket to Lewiefield halt, Kielder. The majority of the camp residents were displaced persons or “DPs”, or refugees from war torn Europe. Many were from eastern European countries occupied by Russia and included Latvians, Estonians, Lithuanians, Poles and Ukranians. Also at various times there would be an influx of Geordies sent to the camp for forestry work from the Newcastle Labour Exchange. Some years after Ted left Lewie Camp, it was closed and eventually became the District Mechanical Workshop, subsequently disappearing under the rising waters of Kielder Water. He recalls that for quite a while I was the only Brit residing in the camp which made him feel more like a DP than the rest of the resident refugees The article includes many old photographs of the Kielder area.
Gwydyr Forester Training School
Dick Ayre shares a Gwydyr FTS photograph at the Course 21 Prize Giving on 17th July 1968. Included in the photograph are: - Mike Casserley, Keith Henderson, Meirion Morris, Bob Sanders, John Proudfoot, Doug Allan, Chris Robinson, Hamish Jeffrey, John Clarke, Chris Booth, Ian Tierney, Paul Marsh, John Davies, Dick Ayre, Brian Barrett, Mr J. Robertson (F), Mr R. Wheeler (HF), Mr E. Harris, Mr G. Savage (DO1), Mr A. Jones (DO2), Mr A. Powell (HF) and Mr B. Thompson (F).
Sweet Chestnut Coppice Silviculture in Kent
As a Trainee Forester from Dean FTS in 1967, Simon Malone’s first posting was to Challock Forest, Kent. He was drawn into the management of commercial sweet chestnut coppice.
Letters to the Editor
Norman Davidson is working on a series of Research cultivation photographs showing ploughing and related operations from the 1930s to the 1980s, which will be loaded onto the Forestry Memories website. In a photograph shown, he is trying to find out the name of the driver of the D7 who is talking to Geoff Bartlett (chief forester, Research) at Ardross Forest in 1975 where the mounted tine new type heavy pivot plough mounting was being tried out.
From the Editor
A comment from Richard Toleman.
Obituaries
Peter Charlesworth, FCA Chairman for the past two years, passed away suddenly on 10th December 2013 aged 79 years.
Mike Whitlock recounts the interesting career of David Mobbs who died in December.
Dick Ayre has many memories of Frank Harvey, aka Mr. Wharncliffe who joined the FC in 1958. He died on 21st October 2013.
David Seal and George Holmes remember Norman Brown, who died in Melrose on 17th December 2013 aged 94 years.
His family has told of the death of Edmund Waddelove aged 94. He would have been known to a generation of foresters having spent the decade of the 1950s at Gwydyr FTS as an instructor.