Slasher Magazine Summary: Publication No. 308 - Summer 1981
The scanned images of the Slasher were produced by and courtesy of the Forest Research library staff based at Alice Holt, Surry, where the original copies are located.
The content summary below was very kindly compiled by Diane Birkett, Bedfordshire. See PDF attachment link below the text to view the full document. A total of over 400 issues were produced between 1948 and the final issue in 2009.
Sales To Raise £40M In Three Years
The Forestry Act 1981 which received the Royal Assent on 27th July, amends the Forestry Act 1967 in a number of important ways, including providing Forestry Ministers with wider powers to dispose of Forestry Commission land and plantations. This will provide income in order to reduce the dependence of the Commission on public funds for the management of its Woodlands. Further details of the new Act are given in the article.
The Commission’s former Chairman, now Lord John-Mackie after being elevated to the Peerage in the special Honours List in April, made his first speech dealing with forestry, in the House of Lords during the debate on the Forestry Bill on 1st July.
Sunshine Smiles For Prince's Flying Visit
On one of his last public engagements before the royal wedding, Prince Charles made a flying visit to the Commission’s Deer Museum at Clatteringshaws, New Galloway, as guest of the British Deer Society, of which he is patron. He piloted a Wessex helicopter of the Queen's flight to Clatteringshaws, where he was welcomed by BDS President Lord Dulverton and John Davies, Conservator South Scotland. The Royal visit lasted over an hour and afterwards the Prince left in the helicopter, accompanied by John Davies, to view the Galloway Forest Park and fly to Eskdalemuir for the rest of his Deer Society visit.
Earlier that week, Prince Charles officially opened the redeveloped Kilmallie Sawmill at Fort William.
Prince Charles has welcomed the suggestion that the Royal Wedding should be commemorated by the Forestry Commission with special tree planting schemes in each of the three countries.
In Scotland, a grove of Scots pine of Glenmore origin will be planted at Loch Morlich in Queen’s Forest.
In Wales, a grove of Welsh oak will be planted in Afan Argoed Country Park near Port Talbot.
In England, a world collection of all species of Ash will be planted in the Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire.
In addition to these commemorative plantings, Prince Charles accepted the offer of a number of seedlings associated with the Boscobel Oak, in which Charles II is reputed to have hidden after the Battle of Worcester.
Picture: Prince Charles chats to FC staff and their wives.
Ron Leaves The Chair
On 3rd June, Ron Brown stepped down as Chairman of the Whitley Council Trade Union Side. His service to the Forestry Commission Trade Union movement goes back for many years, as a CSU local representative, member of CSU Executive, member of Staff Side and Staff Side Secretary before taking on the job of Chairman nine years ago. The TUS presented him with a crystal bowl and a cheque. His wife received flowers. Ron intends to devote the remainder of his career in the Commission to his “real” job – bugs. He is a career Specialist Forester working in Entomology at Alice Holt.
The new Chairman is John Stephen, HEO in Office Services, HQ.
Picture: Ron Brown and his wife at the TUS presentation.
Record Year For Seed Harvest
Although last year produced only a moderate cone crop, it proved to be one of the best for seed collection in the Commission's history. Over 2½ tonnes of seed were collected. Better even than the bumper yield of 1976, which saw very good cone crops all over the country. The record yield came after a series of bad seed years had resulted in stocks being so low that orders could not be met from the Alice Holt store.
Fund Appeals - "Help Us To Help"
Over the past few years, the staff of the Forestry Commission have generously responded to the special appeals by the Civil Service Benevolent Fund. The proceeds of these appeals were expended either on the provision of new residential homes for the elderly and infirm, retired civil servants and their dependents, or on extensions to existing homes.
However, due to inflation in recent years, the fund has suffered a reduction in income in real terms. The provision of additional places in the residential homes has led to increased expenditure on provisions. The 1981 appeal target for England, Wales and Northern Ireland is £250,000 and £50,00 for Scotland.
Fall In Pine Beauty Problem
There has been a dramatic fall in the area of Lodgepole Pine forests which required treatment by aerial spraying this year, against infestation by Pine Beauty Moth (Panolis flammea). Spraying was carried out by the Forestry Commission early in June.
Alex Fiddles To Success
At the annual Golden Fiddle Rally at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall, Alex Bain, the 14-year old son of Forester Jimmy Bain of Banchory Forest, won the junior Golden Fiddle Award, the premier award in the country. Alex, a member of the Banchory Strathspey and Reel Society, received a fiddle, bow and case in addition to his trophy.
Double Tops!
Forestry Commission employees Billy Fleming and James Duffy won the Oban and District Darts League Doubles and were presented with a trophy, which will grace the walls of the new Village Hall and Social Club at Dalavich.
In the Money!
The Llandovery District Office syndicate has scooped a handsome win on the football pools. The lucky seven share £760.95 between them.
The Music Makers - Alan's A Fellow Of Note
Alan Craythorne, who joined the Commission in 1977, has achieved a musical “Grand Slam” by his recent award of a Fellowship of Trinity College London. Added to his other five musical distinctions - Associateship, Licentiateship and Fellowship of London College of Music, Licentiateship of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Licentiateship of Trinity College – this means the CO in Finance (HQ) has soared up the musical scale as a composer. Now he has matriculated at the University of Durham, and he will sit the first exam of his Honours Music course this summer. Alan's previous musical success means that he does not have to attend lectures, his only visits to the University during the next three years will be to take their exams.
Picture: Alan Craythorne.
"Getting It Over" On The Airways
John Justin McGarvey, a Clerical Assistant in Computer Section (HQ), is a singer/songwriter and was invited to Radio Forth to record an interview after he sent them a cassette of two of his songs, “Get it Over” and “Lovers and Fools”.
Picture: John Justin McGarvey is interviewed on Radio Forth by DJ Christopher John.
First Album Is Family Affair
His love of Morris Dancing led Paul Tabbush to bring out his first record album of traditional Geordie songs on 10th July. “Banks of Tyne” released on the Dingle’s Record Label is a tribute by Paul, a Silviculturist at Northern Research Station, and his wife Carolyn to the music of Northumberland. When Paul joined the Commission in the Forest of Dean, he became involved with the local Morris Dancers, and on his transfer to Kielder, he set up the Hexham Morris Dance team. Paul also plays the mandolin and at a local folk club, a young lady asked if she could play her accordion for the Morris dances. He accepted and they were married in 1978. They were accompanied on their honeymoon during a tour of Brittany by the other twelve men in the Morris Dancing team.
Picture: Paul Tabbush and wife Carolyn with their musical instruments including Northumbrian pipes.
Back By Popular Demand
Forestry Commission Research worker at the Auchterawe Research Branch, Pearl Baker has been asked back to sing at a local night spot every week for the past ten years. She sings at the Fort Augustus British Legion Club. Regulars make up the majority of the audience but during the summer months the club is packed with visitors. Fortunately Pearl knows 218 songs by heart.
Picture: Pearl Baker.
Newton Nursery's Golden Anniversary
Over 700 visitors joined in the Golden Anniversary celebrations when Newton Nursery at Elgin, the Forestry Commission’s largest northern nursery, threw open its gates to the general public to commemorate 50 years of growing trees in the fertile Moray soil. The Forestry Commission bought Newton Farm from Colonel F.W.H. Forteath in 1931.
Picture: (1) The Newton Nursery staff with some of the specialist equipment. (2) Chief Forester Struan Stewart during his interview with Grampian Television’s Jan Gavin. (3) BBC Radio reporter Ken Lindsay tapes the story of Newton from Head Forester Sandy MacIntosh. (4) One of the school parties sets off from the nursery office on their guided tour. (5) Cultivating Newton in the 1930s. (6) Skilled forest worker Colin Fraser demonstrates to a school party how Scots pine cones are collected using a fork lift.
Muntjac Study Into True Origins
A plea for Slasher readers to assist in a study to discover the true origins of the Muntjac deer living wild in Britain at the present time. Muntjac deer were introduced by the Eleventh Duke of Bedford in the 1920s in Woburn Park and have subsequently spread from there. Feral animals can be found now over much of East Anglia, the Midlands and Southern England. Both the Indian and Chinese species were introduced and escaped. There has been and still is confusion as to the identity of the feral deer. Although it is generally accepted that it is the Chinese Muntjac that is at large, some people still think that it is the Indian species and the author of an article in the latest issue of “Deer”, the journal of the British Deer Society, believes the deer are probably hybrids.
Picture: Chinese Water Deer.
Brandon's Birdlife Boast
At Brandon Depot in Thetford Forest, Chief Forester Barry Griggs reports on a swallow’s nest built on a light fitting just six feet from a 30 inch circular saw which is in daily use on a pitwood production line. The swallow has reared its young despite the considerable noise of the saw together with the conveyors and loaders. In addition, a nightjar has chosen to nest in the stake stack yard.
Picture: Mother swallow in her “all electric” home.
Gillian Wins £200 - Now She's Off!
Gillian Duff, Audio Typist in Perth District Office returned from a holiday in Tenerife to find she had won £200 worth of travel vouchers in the raffle for Friends of Aschaffenburgh, the Bavarian twin town of Perth. Now Gillian will be leaving the Commission for a new job at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The vouchers will be used for her flight there.
Picture: Gillian Duff.
Chairman Opens Brandon Complex
The newly completed Peeler/Bark Mill/Bark Storage complex at Brandon Central Depot was opened by Chairman Sir David Montgomery during the Commissioner's visit to East England in May.
Picture: The new bark facility at Brandon Depot.
Bright Ideas Lead To £928 Reward
The number of suggestions received throughout the Commission was slightly below that of the previous year - 107 compared with 116. Twenty five suggestions were accepted for 1980/81, three more than in 1979/80. The number of awards for 1980/81 was 38, an increase of 10 over 1979/80, and the value of benefit to the Commission for the year was £4,100, of which £2,500 is a recurring annual saving.
The following are examples of suggestions which gained awards during the year: -
Wheel extension for wheeled ditching machines; Choker chain repairs; Grabsaw nutting plate; Diazochrome film developer unit; Venison skidding bag.
Ex-Commissioner Chairs SWT
Former Commissioner for Forest and Estate Management, George Stewart is the new Chairman of the Scottish Wildlife Trust in succession to Maxwell Hamilton.
School Winners at Highland Show
The winners of the Forestry Commission's annual schools competition to provide a display for the Information Centre at Tummel Forest, Perthshire, received their prizes at the Royal Highland Show. The winners were pupils from Hill Primary School, Blairgowrie (in the 7-9 years age section) and Gowriehill Primary School, Dundee (in the 10-14 years age section). They were presented with a cheque for £25 for each school, plus books and posters about trees. The presentations were made by Roger Wheater, Director of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.
Postbag - End of the Name Game
Continuing the anagrams of names suggested by Arnold Grayson in the Winter 1981 edition 306 and followed up by readers’ letters in the Spring 1981 edition 307: -
A letter from D.S. Bowser, Commissioner, suggests Andrew Bearhop should beware of getting out of bed too early because an anagram of his name is “Rare dawn-phobe”.
A letter from H.S. Frost, ex E(E), N(W) and HQ, suggests several anagrams of “Forestry Commission”.
Award For Centre
In the “Come to Britain” Trophy Competition 1980, the British Tourist Authority awarded a Certificate of Merit to The David Marshall Lodge Visitor Centre, Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, Aberfoyle, Stirling. John Kennedy, Commissioner for Forest and Estate Management, received the Certificate from the Rt. Hon Sally Oppenheim MP at a ceremony in London on 21st July.
They Became Austrians for Three Weeks
Alan Patmore, Forest Craftsman at Wymersley Forest, Northamptonshire was one of seven Commission employees selected to take part in a three week Forestry Tour in Austria. The visit was organised by the British Association of the Experiment in International Living. Alan Patmore gives a report of the tour.
Picture: The British group in the forest, preparing to fell the trees in the background as part of their Austrian forestry training.
'Super-Sec' Ros.
Rosalind Bull, Personal Secretary to Head of Information, Peter Drumm, was the runner-up in a competition to find the Ideal Secretary. The Department of Secretarial Studies at Stevenson College of Further Education, Edinburgh, circulated hundreds of firms inviting secretaries to complete a questionnaire listing the ideal secretary’s top ten qualities.
Weddings
John Henderson, Information Branch married Lorna Barton.
Kay Beattie, CO, married Gordon Inglis, EO, Finance.
Julie Cole, Clerical Officer, East England Conservancy, who has been with the Commission for 19 months, transferring from Central Office of Information, is getting married.
Calendar
A new edition of the calendar initiated by the Forestry Commission during Diamond Jubilee year is going on sale for 1982.
Picture: The 1982 calendar.
Retired
Bob Roberts, A&FO, East Scotland Conservancy, has retired after 34 years’ service with the Commission, the last 7 years being in Aberdeen. Prior to 1974, he served at Lyndhurst, Dumfries, Cardiff and at Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh.
Picture: Bob Roberts receives a cheque from Conservator Ian Grant with Charles Simmons looking on.
Ray Schofield, Forester, Hazelborough Forest, has retired after joining the Commission in 1946.
Daphne Whitlock, Forest Clerk, Hazelborough Forest, has retired after starting work in the nurseries at Hazelborough in 1952, transferring to the office as Clerk, working for George Liddington, in 1953.
Picture: Ray Schofield and Daphne Whitlock at the retirement party.
Jack Reader, Walden Forest, Essex, has retired after 28 years’ service with the Commission.
Bill Buck, Forest Craftsman, has retired after 22 years’ service with the Commission in the Markshall area of Lavenham Forest.
Eddie Hamstead, Head Forester, Swaffham Forest, has retired after being concerned with timber and forestry all his working life after returning from War service.
Mr A.S.W. White (Chalky White to his associates), Paperkeeper in the East England Conservancy Office for the past 13 years has retired.
Dick Williams, Clerical Officer, has retired after 31 years’ service with the Commission in the East England Conservancy.
Alex McCluskey, Joiner and Handyman, Benmore Forest, West Scotland, has retired after 31 years’ service with the Commission.
John McIntyre, Forest Craftsman, Glenfinart, West Scotland, has retired after 50 years’ service with the Commission.
Andrew Thomson, Area Civil Engineer, Aberfoyle, has retired after 18 years’ service with the Commission.
Alf Westall, Head Forester at Bedgebury Pinetum has retired after 33 years’ service with the Commission. After War service, he went to Forester Training School, then began working at Bedgebury Pinetum, quickly taking charge and remaining there until retirement. Mrs Westall, who has worked as a part-time Forest Clerk for several years has also retired.
Picture: Alf Westal and Mrs Westall at the presentation with Mr R.E. Crowther, Principal Silviculturist.
Tom Clark, Forest Clerk, Bedgebury Pinetum, has retired after 9 years’ service with the Commission.
Bill Elliott, Senior Principal in Finance (Control), has retired. He joined the Commission in 1938 as a CO in Dumfries and was appointed A&FO in Chester in 1959. Transferring to Aberystwyth, he became Principal in 1971 and Senior Principal in 1974.
Picture: Bill Elliott receives his cheque from John Kennedy.
Jack Lax, SEO in Non-Industrial Estabs., has retired after joining the Commission in 1936 as HEO in the Estates Branch. After serving at Alice Holt, he transferred to Edinburgh in 1974 as SEO in the Estate Management Division, moving to Personnel Branch in 1976.
Picture: Jack Lax at his retirement presentation.
Ken Payne, Civil Engineer Assistant, Bristol Conservancy, has retired after joining the Commission in 1958 as a Cartographic Draughtsman, changing over to the Civil Engineering side three years later.
Obituaries
Cliff Tandy, OBE, Landscape Consultant to the Commission since 1976 has died aged 62. His work includes flat forest design in Thetford and the afforestation of Beinn Ghuilean mountain rising above Campbeltown.
Reg Carnell, former DOI in Exeter has died. He retired in 1968.
George Dallimore, who worked in Mendip Forest until his retirement has died, aged 78.
Charles Clifford Davies, Forester at Ystwyth Forest has died aged 51. He joined the Commission in 1949 at Dyfnant Forest and served in the North Wales Conservancy forests at Gwydyr, Radnor, Hafren, Dyfi and Ystwyth.
Bert Giddens, former Executive Officer in the South East England Conservancy Office, has died aged 72. He retired in 1974 after serving as a Clerical Officer in the Cambridge Office since 1953 and latterly as an Executive Officer in the Lyndhurst Office from 1967 until his retirement.
Charlie Holton, former Foreman Mechanic at Sherwood Repair Depot NW(E), has died aged 79.
Herbert Largent BEM, Forest Craftsman at Kings Forest, East England Conservancy, has died aged 59. He joined the Commission in 1939 and worked on the old Redneck Beat of Thetford Forest. After War service, he returned to Thetford on harvesting operations. He was an original Forest Worker member of the Thetford Joint Consultative Committee and became Staff Side Secretary in 1952 and was awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 1969.
Harry Nankivell, former Ganger in the Grogley-Bishops Wood area of Bodmin Forest has died aged 86.
John Wilson, former Gamekeeper, has died aged 95. He was originally a Gamekeeper on the Achnamara beat of Poltalloch Estate and became a Forestry Commission employee when the Commission bought Knapdale Forest in 1931. He retired in 1950.