References to Birnam Forestry Training School from 1918 – Various references quoted
This is a collection of references to Birnam Forestry School sourced over the years:
1. 11/11/18 Birnam Forestry School opens - 12 students under staff led by Harry Watson with access to Atholl and Murthly Estates. Detail courtesy of Dundee Courier and British Newspaper Archive
2. Nursery and Plantation Work.— Experiments bearing on the production of seedlings and transplants were carried out in nurseries in the Forest of Dean, Oxshott and Delamere in England and at Birnam, Craibstone and Beauly in Scotland. FC Annual report 1920
3. In addition .........................................., training was provided at Birnam in Perthshire and at Brockenhurst in the New Forest for thirtysix disabled soldiers, the Ministry of Labour co-operating with the Forestry Commissioners for this purpose. FC Annual Report 1921
4. Apprentices' Schools : Expenditure, £10,160.— The apprentices’ schools have been reduced from four in number to three, situated at Parkend (Forest of Dean), Chopwell (County Durham) and Beauly (Inverness-shire). Sixty-two men received training at these schools during the year. The school at Burley (New Forest) was closed in November, 1921. The special courses provided for disabled soldiers at Birnam terminated in November, 1921, and preparations were
made to close similar courses at Brockenhurst (New Forest) in November, 1922. These courses were provided at the request of the Ministry of Labour. FC Annual Report 1922
5. Immediately after the war and in co-operation with the Ministry of Labour two schools for disabled soldiers who desired a forestry training were temporarily established at Birnam in Perthshire and at Brockenhurst in the New Forest but these schools were discontinued in 1922. FC Annual Report 1929
6. Foresters’ Schools.
It has been suggested that a note on the general lines of training followed in the Commission’s schools for forest apprentices may be of interest, more especially to those who have not had an opportunity of visiting these institutions. Training is now confined to three schools, viz. : Parkend in the Forest of Dean ; Chop well, near Newcastle ; and Beauly, near Inverness.
The total number of apprentices at present at these schools is sixty-one. Burley Lodge School in the New Forest was closed at the end of last year, and Birnam school which it was thought would be required for forest apprentices, but has not been used for that purpose, also has been closed. At Brockenhurst in Hampshire a course in forestry is available for disabled soldiers, and fifteen men are in training there, but as the course is of shorter duration than that provided for apprentices and is of a different character, I do not propose to refer further to it in this note.
The chief reason why all the school buildings are not so fully utilised as was at one time anticipated is that scarcely any men are presenting themselves for training from private estates. Landowners, for the most part, are unable to afford financial assistance to their men for this purpose, and the breaking up of large estates, together with the feeling of uncertainty as regards land tenure, is evidently having a deterrent effect.
At forest apprentices’ schools the proportion of time spent in the class-room as compared with the time devoted to manual work varies somewhat at the different schools, but roughly speaking not more than five or six hours per week are taken up by indoor instruction, so that about 80 per cent, of the men’s time is free for practical work in the woods and nurseries.
Roughly and briefly indicated, the syllabus of instruction at the
schools is as follows :—
First of all the apprentices are taught the principles of sylviculture, including such matters as climate and soil in their relation to tree growth, the composition of woods, the theory and practice of thinning and the sylvicultural characteristics of the commoner trees. Under forest protection the students receive instruction as regards all the more destructive insect and fungus pests, learn how to recognise damage done by these, and the conditions which encourage or prevent attack. Methods of protection against frost, drought, weeds, fire, &c., are also dealt with. The measurement and valuation of felled and standing timber receive attention, and particular stress is laid on the necessity of the men having an elementary but thoroughly
practical knowledge of surveying.
In the neighbourhood of each school is a considerable area of woodland and as far as possible variety of practical instruction is provided in nearly all kinds of forestry operations, such as preparation of planting ground, fencing, nursery work, planting, felling, transport of timber and the construction of roads. An effort is made to place each student in rotation in the position of foreman, and each has to keep records of work done and calculate the cost of the various operations.
Except for a short period on the re-opening of the schools, only men who have had some previous experience of forestry or estate work have been admitted. In future it is hoped to draw the men chiefly from the Divisions and to test their fitness, both mental and physical, before admission.
I t must not be expected that apprentices on completing their training will be ready to take up each and every duty without guidance ; it should not be forgotten that they may still be lacking in experience. The men must usually be given time to adapt themselves to changed conditions, and comparatively few will be able at once to assume control over large gangs of men. The aim kept in view during training is not that the men should merely be taught the manner of using a variety of forestry tools, or should learn the names of innumerable insects and fungi, but that the education should go beyond this, causing the men to reason things out for themselves, to learn the “ why and wherefore,”
and generally to comprehend the relationship between trees and their surroundings.
F. S. Journal of Forestry Commission No 1 1922
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Groups: Forester Training Schools and Universities