Leaflet on one of Britain’s Forests – Glentress Forest
The leaflet images are courtesy of Shona Marshall daughter of Alex Grossert who attended Glentress Forester Training School from Oct 1948 to Jul 1950. Some of the details are recorded in No 4610 on this website.
This leaflet was one of a set eleven produced in 1953 to describe the attributes, forest structure, employment and history of selected Forestry Commission forests throughout GB. In Scotland the Forests of Ae, Culbin, Strathyre and Loch Ard were so described. Copies of the leaflets for Forests of Ae, Culbin and Loch Ard would be very welcome indeed for addition to this website.
Glentress is described as one of the first areas in Scotland to be acquired 1920 by the Forestry Commission in this case in partnership with the Dept of Agriculture who acquired the lower fertile ground to form thirteen small holdings for returning service personnel. This partnership arrangement provided not only the housing but work in the forest and a weekly wage for the house holders.
Not mentioned in the leaflet is that the land was acquired under the Land Settlement (Scotland) Act of 1919 whereby a good quality estate farm, Eshiels, was purchased and broken up into small holdings of variable sizes.
The leaflet describes the early afforestation work, further land acquisitions and continued employment for the workforce, the building of a labour camp around 1937 to accommodate unemployed people on work training schemes after which the camp was used for prisoners of war in WW2 following which it reverted to a Forester Training School. In time a small forest nursery was added and then the description runs on into details of forest work, timber harvesting and some timber conversion work. This is followed by facts on the natural history of the area, historical events and even a vague guide on how visitors to the area can see the forest more closely from two local pathways.
The full leaflet can be seen in the PDF link below.
Groups: Forestry Areas, Forestry Records, Booklets and Reports