Slasher Magazine Summary: Publication No. 309 - Autumn 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.
Disposals - The Director General Answers Key Questions - First Major Blocks Sold
Nine lots of woodland have been advertised for sale, ranging from 1096 hectares at Lochar Moss, Solway Forest to 62 hectares at Methven Castle, Perth. The disposals programme is the main topic for discussion among Commission employees, particularly with regard to the possibility of redundancies. The article has questions put by Slasher and responses by Director General George Holmes.
BTA Awards
The Lochaweside Forest Cabins in Argyll and Placket Walk, specially designed for disabled visitors in Abbot’s Wood, East Sussex, have both won awards for the Forestry Commission from the British Tourist Authority.
Welcome
Geordie Hutchison, Managing Director of Calders and Grandidge Ltd of Boston, Lincolnshire, one of Britain’s largest timber importers, has been appointed part-time Forestry Commissioner from 1st October. He succeeds retiring Commissioner Dennis Hicklin.
Picture: Geordie Hutchison.
Night On A Bare Mountain
To commemorate the Royal Wedding, a bonfire beacon was lit at 4,400 feet on the summit of Ben Nevis. It was organised by Geoff Hatfield, Chartered Surveyor and Forestry Commission Land Agent, Fort William, who climbed to the summit aided by members of the local Mountain Rescue team and the Territorial Army. Due to heavy rain and wind, the BBC were unable to reach the summit to record the event. Geoff and his party marched on to the summit, where a great heap of firewood in car tyres had been dropped by helicopter two days earlier. Having built the fire in extremely foul conditions, the party huddled in the emergency shelter at the mountain top until lighting time at exactly 22.30 hours. Unfortunately, visibility on the mountain top was only 20 yards and it is doubtful whether anyone saw it in Fort William lying below, let alone on the Isle of Rhum, many miles out to sea where the next bonfire on cue was to have been lit. The BBC man, by now warm and dry in the comfort of his radio car on the road more than 4,000 feet below, made contact with the walkie-talkie radio carried by one of the mountain rescue party. The conversation which ensued was beamed direct to London, where it was apparently relayed live to the broadcasting services in Hong Kong and Gibraltar. It is not known whether anyone heard it in this country.
Picture: The highest Royal Wedding beacon in the land.
Right On Cue
Arwel Thomas, a recently promoted Basic Grade Cartographic Draughtsman is now the 1981 Wales Civil Service Pool Champion.
John McGough, A&FO, North Wales was recently the runner-up in the Aberystwyth Civil Service Table Tennis Tournament.
Picture: Pool Champion Arwel Thomas.
Formal Retirement - The Choice Is Yours
Some Forestry Commission employees elect to retire at 60, but many remain in service for up to 5 years more. Suggestions are given for pension benefits.
Give Generously - It's Flagpole Day
An appeal is being launched by Glasgow's Botanic Gardens to raise money to replace their 100 year old flagpole which had to be removed because it became unsafe. The new pole will again be Douglas fir, highly appropriate because the great plant collector David Douglas, who discovered the species in British Columbia in the mid 19th century, first worked as a gardener at the Botanic Gardens. Mr Eric Curtis, curator at the Gardens, contacted Conservator John Davis, South Scotland, to see if he could provide a “home grown” specimen, as the cost of replacing the flagpole with a tree from British Columbia would be prohibitive. The Commission are at present felling some magnificent 55 year old Douglas fir at Bennan Forest, which lies along the west side of Loch Ken, south of New Galloway. Some of these trees are 35 metres in height and superbly straight, ideal for a flagpole. Mr Curtis travelled to Bennan to choose his tree with the assistance of Chief Forester Bill McGivern. They chose a magnificent 120 ft fir which will be felled, de-barked and left to season for eighteen months to two years. It will then be transported to Glasgow.
Picture: Mr Curtis and Chief Forester Bill McGivern with the Douglas fir that will be the new Botanic Gardens flagpole.
Ah So! - Conker Mystery Solved
This year’s cone crop has not been as good as last year’s, but Forest Management have received reports of reasonable coning in Lodgepole pine, Scots pine and Corsican pine.
Douglas Clark received a request from the representative of a Japanese firm in London to supply 200,000 conkers for export to Japan. Mr Clarke phoned round the conservancies and met with some interesting responses. One Assistant Conservator admitted to detesting chestnuts and is doing his best to cut down every conker tree in sight. An EO thought the Japanese might regard conkers as an aphrodisiac, and if they made a love potion from them, could she get her share? Others had seen an item on John Craven's Newsround that playing conkers is a rising craze among children and adults in Japan. South Wales had Scout troops geared up to collect conkers and South East England assured that they could collect at least a ton. In East England, Conservancy staff considered taking a day's leave to go on a conker collecting expedition. Alas, all their efforts were in vain. The man from Japan came back to say that the conkers must be in Tokyo by 1st of November. There was no guarantee the conkers could be supplied by that date, so the collection plans had to be aborted. It was then revealed the conkers were wanted by Nissan to launch a new model at the Tokyo Car Fair. The obvious name for the new car is The Chestnut, although one HQ wit thought it might be the Nissan Conker-or!
Colleen Is The 'Write Type' For Iain
Inverness Conservancy staff decamped to a nearby hotel at lunchtime on 18th September to give good wishes to fellow staff members Colleen Burke and Iain Messider on their forthcoming marriage.
Picture: Iain Messider and Colleen Burke.
Wentwood & Alice Holt Open Day Successes
There was good weather during this year’s Open Days at Wentwood which attracted 1,500 children in school and scout parties from as far afield as Bristol, Bridgend and Rhonda, and over 3,000 other visitors. There were guided tours of production operations, guided walks, displays by Gwent Fire Service, Gwent Bowmen, Gwent Naturalists Trust, The Badger Society and the Usk Ancient Craft Museum.
A wide range of exhibits were shown during three Open Days in the summer at the Forestry Commission Research Station, Alice Holt Lodge. A total of 800 local schoolchildren arrived on the Thursday, 1,000 invited professional guests visited on the Friday and there were 2,500 visitors on the Sunday.
Is This a Record?
Forester Peter Davys of Bedgebury Forest has come across a wood ants’ nest at Hemsted which he thinks must be a record at 5 ft tall, measuring 9 ft across the base one way and 12 ft the other.
New Director Of R & D
Arnold Grayson has been appointed Director of Research, based at Alice Holt Lodge, in succession to David Johnston.
Picture: Arnold Grayson.
Help Spread The Word
A recent professional survey of manpower and training needs in private forestry in England and Wales, undertaken on behalf of the Forestry Training Council, has revealed that surprising numbers of forestry employees are still unaware, despite information provided to numerous representative organisations, that the Forestry Training Council can supply short training courses at craft, supervisory and managerial levels in a wide variety of subjects.
Events For The Disabled
Recently there have been a number of special occasions and events for the disabled at several forests in the South of England. Staff at Ringwood Forest gave up their Sunday recently to open the forest specially for the disabled, and it proved a great success with the visitors. Over 150 disabled visitors were able to follow a two mile route through the forest and see exhibitions and demonstrations of equipment, trees and forestry skills like spar making and bark peeling.
Picture: Disabled visitors view forestry skills.
Barbara Wins £250 Award
Barbara Spence is one of only two women Foresters working for the Commission, an achievement which Cosmopolitan magazine thought notable enough to award her a £250 prize recently. Barbara works as a Harvesting Forester in the 20,000 acre Gwydyr Forest, North Wales. She took a degree in forestry at Bangor. At college, she met her husband Bob, who also works for the Commission as a Forester at Coed-y-Brenin, near Dolgellau.
Picture: Forester Barbara Spence.
Isle of Wight - Cliff Matthews
Cliff Matthews, is well known to foresters serving on the Isle of Wight during the past thirty years. He is a sawmill owner and a carpenter and has built cannon for the replica of the Golden Hind. With a dead elm at the bottom of his garden, he has converted the hollow tree into a play house for his grandchildren, and furnished it with miniature chairs and tables.
Picture: Cliff Matthews with the elm play house.
The Cardiff Marathon
The Cardiff Marathon held on Sunday 20th September to raise funds to provide facilities for patients at the Rookwood Rehabilitation Hospital for war pensioners, spinal injury and neurological cases, attracted 3,000 runners including three from the South Wales Conservancy. Brian Barrett, Forester at Rheola was placed 597th in 3 hours 46 minutes; Alan Aherne, Forest Craftsman at Rheola, finished 987th and Steve Vanstone, Forester at Brechfa, came in 998th place, both in just over 4 hours. They raised a total of £130 for the deserving cause.
The Role Of Work Study In The Commission - Developing A Better Future
An article on planning ahead in forestry and the machinery used. The timber market is depressed, and the Commission’s planting programme is reducing. However, even during the present recession, our harvesting programme is increasing year by year, and over the next 10 years it should rise.
Pictures: (1) & (4) The Gremo Harvester, a crane mounted feller-processor performing the tree felling, extraction, removal and processing. (2) Forester Ken Russell directs Process Operator James Stewart in the Borders Region Work Study Team at Ae. (3) A foam trailer is used to halt a crown fire in Cymer Forest, South Wales.
Sanctuary For Butterflies At Risk
The Commission has extended a Forest Nature Reserve to over 1,000 acres in woodland on the Oxfordshire / Buckinghamshire border. It is one of the most important strongholds in Britain for several threatened species of butterfly.
Did You Know We'd Published?
Every office should have received a Book List giving details of titles in stock from “Publications” and “Information”.
First among the new titles is the important “Investment Appraisal in Forestry” by Roger Busby and Arnold Grayson about NDR in simple terms and not just for financial wizards.
Alice Holt staff made major contributions at the 1980 seminar on “Research for Practical Arboriculture” and the collected papers were published early this year as “Occasional Paper No. 10”.
An account of the 1979 control programme by the aerial application of insecticide against Pine Beauty Moth (Occasional Paper No. 11), edited by Dermont Bevan, our Principle Entomologist, and Alan Holden of the Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory at Faskally, records the important developments in aerial spraying theory and practice and in the monitoring of its effects on the environment.
A short account on “Hazel Coppice” at Westonbirt was written and illustrated by John White, curator of the Arboretum, and published for sale there.
The success of “Explore the New Forest” continues with a large reprint available towards the end of the season from the Publications Section at Alice Holt Lodge.
The “Trees for all Seasons 1982” Calendar is still available and staff have sent photos for the 1983 Calendar.
Since the first publication in 1996, the “Forest Management Tables” have been in demand worldwide. Booklet 34 has been superseded by Booklet 48, part of a loose-leaf package of “Yield Models for Forest Management. They were prepared by Peter Edwards and John Christie of the Mensuration Section. About two thirds of the 160 Models have been printed and distributed to Divisions by Conservancies. Peter Edwards is preparing Booklet 49 for early publication to replace Booklet 32.
Two publications out this month, the “Report on Forest Research 1981” and the D. of E. Arboricultural Leaflet No. 7 – “Removal of tree stumps”.
Four In A Row
For the fourth year in succession, Inverness Technical College has awarded the Duke of Buccleuch Memorial Trophy to an employee of the Forestry Commission. Stephen Reekie from South Scotland Conservancy, received the award which is presented to a forestry student of suitable merit, selected by the Governors of the College.
Gold Fever Lures Vince To Lapland
Vince Thurkettle, Harvesting Forester at Aldewood, East England, a keen minerologist became interested in panning for gold five years ago, and has spent weekends and holidays looking for gold in rivers in England, Wales and Scotland. Soon after getting married, Vince and his wife Jeannie flew to Ivalo, 150 miles within the Arctic Circle to spend two weeks of cold, rain and discomfort panning for gold. They spent seven days walking miles, following the Ivalojoki river, stopping to pan wherever they found a likely spot. They found an old sluice box which they repaired and used. It helped them to recover most of the 1.35g of gold they found - about a quarter of the amount needed to make a ring. Towards the end of the holiday, the weather improved but they were plagued with mosquitoes, blackflies and wood ants.
Picture: Vince uses the sluice box he repaired.
Postbag
The article on Newton Nursery reminded George Pringle, Chief Forester Silv (N) of when he worked in the nursery 40 years ago and he also recalled the big fire there in 1941.
Sandy Rose also had memories of the nursery and was the first tenant to “flit” into the newly built FC house at Newton, being transferred from Monaughty Forest. Mr Rose also mentions the man operating the rotovator in the 1930s photograph was the late Willie Gerrard, RSM of the 6th Battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders.
Richard Westlake, IPCS Branch Council representative for Land Agents and Clerks of Works, criticises the 1981 Forestry Act and the reporting of it by “Slasher”.
A letter with verse on the incorrect caption/picture of a Muntjac deer in the previous edition.
Retired
Diana Goddard, Forest Clerk, Burley Office, has retired after 40 years’ service with the Commission. In 1941, she reported for duty at the forest nursery at Burley in the New Forest. The foreman was Horace James, later to become Chief Forester and now retired. She became Forest Clerk in 1955.
Picture: Di Goddard and colleagues at her retirement presentation.
J.K. Brewer (Kitch Brewer), Ringwood, has retired after 41 years’ service with the Commission. He became a Skilled Worker in 1949 and a Craftsman in 1975. His whole service was spent at Ringwood, much of it on nursery work until Somerly Nursery closed down.
Hilda Hinton, Forest Clerk, Shipbourne Forest, has retired after nearly 20 years’ service at Shipbourne Forest, following the amalgamation of Shipbourne and Challock Forests in the Kent District.
Ron Graves, Forest Craftsman, has had a varied career and has retired after first joining the Commission in 1949 in South East England. He left in 1972 to start his own business as a timber feller, He rejoined the Commission in 1975.
Dinnes Hendry, A&FO, York, has retired after a long and varied career in the Forestry Commission.
Picture: Dinnes Hendry receives a set of bowls from Conservator J.A. Spencer.
Dick Dunn, has retired after 38 years’ service with the Commission, all spent at Redesdale Forest. Dick originally shepherded at Rooken Farm until it was acquired by the Forestry Commission.
Picture: Dick Dunn.
Pat Garrow MBE, Chief Forester, Rannoch, has retired after 35 years’ service with the Commission. He was one of the first batch of students at Glentress Forestry Training School at Peebles and was posted from there to Montreathmont Forest in Angus. In 1951 he was briefly in charge of Edensmuir in Fife before taking charge of Rannoch in the same year. Under his supervision for the last 30 years, Rannoch has grown from a stocked area of 430 ha to 7,656 ha, including the famous Black Wood, much of the planting being on some of the most inhospitable sites in the Conservancy. It became a recognised training ground for budding Foresters and District Officers.
Picture: Pat Garrow with Conservator Ian Grant and colleagues.
Miss G.M. Franks (Frankie), Telephonist, East Scotland, has retired after 28 years’ service with the Commission.
John Parker, Head Forester, Kesteven Forest, has retired after joining the Forest Workers’ Training Scheme in 1946. John passed through the Forester Training School at Lynford Hall, Thetford. He became Head Forester in 1966.
Les Stearn, Forest Craftsman, Wensum Forest, has retired on his 60th birthday. He was originally employed on the old Walsham beat.
Jack Lewis, Mortimer Forest, North East England, has retired after 34 years’ service with the Commission. He joined the Commission at Walcot Forest, now part of Mortimer.
Jim Sharp, Mortimer Forest, North East England, has retired after 30 years’ service with the Commission at Mortimer Forest.
Daisy Miller BEM, Forest Craftswoman at Aldewood Forest, who received the British Empire Medal in last year’s Birthday Honours List, has retired after 40 years’ service with the Commission.
Bill Bentley, Santon Downham, has retired after 35 years’ service with the Commission at Santon Downham, Thetford Forest. He joined the Commission in 1946, working in the forest and two years later, joined the Estate Labour Gang where he served as a Labourer and later as a Charge Hand.
Anne O’Brien, has retired. She joined the Commission in 1942 as a member of the Women’s Land Army and stayed. After forest work, she became a Forest Clerk at Holidays Hill, and transferred to the Lyndhurst Beat Office in 1953.
Picture: Anne O’Brien and colleagues at her retirement presentation.
Doreen Dobbie, Clerical Officer, has retired after 27 years’ service with the Commission, all spent in East England Conservancy, first as a Typist, then as Clerical Officer for the last 22 years.
Mr I.O. Evans (‘IO’), Head Forester, St Gwynno, South Wales, has retired after 44 years’ service with the Commission. IO joined the Commission as a Forest Worker at Brechfa in 1937, attended the Dean FTS 1941-43, then went to Rheola as an ex-school Ganger and later served at Wentwood, Derry Ormond, Tintern and Rheola Forests before returning to Tywi in 1953. During his 11 year stay there, he started the planting of what is today’s largest forest in Wales. In 1966 he took charge of St Tydfil Forest and moved to St Gwynno in 1971 when the two forests were amalgamated.
Danny Jones, EO, Harvesting and Marketing, South Wales Conservancy, for the past 14 years, has retired after 38 years’ service with the Commission, 31 of those years spent at Cardiff. In the Conservancy Office, he served in the Accounts, Estates and State Forest Sections before taking charge of the Harvesting and Marketing Section in 1967.
Cliff Carter, Foreman Mechanic, St Hilarys Workshop, has retired after 44 years’ service with the Commission. Cliff joined the Commission as a Tractor Driver at Tair Onen Nursery in 1938, returning after 4 years’ War service with the Welsh Regiment. He transferred to the Engineering side in 1953.
Cyril Nixie, Forest Craftsman, Caeo Forest, has retired after 27 years’ service with the Commission at Llandeilo, Cilgwyn and Caeo Forests.
Allen Powell, Chief Forester, Beddgelert, Wales, has retired after 33 years’ service with the Commission, all spent in forests in Wales.
Picture: Allen Powell and Mrs Powell at the retirement presentation.
Don Shaw, Recreation Head Forester, Gwydyr, North Wales, has retired after 38 years’ service with the Commission.
Eric Jones, Ranger II, Hafren Forest, has retired after 33 years’ service with the Commission.
Ifor Morris, Civil Engineering Operator, Roads Branch, Llandovery, has retired after 16 years’ service with the Roads Branch.
David Pocock, Civil Engineering Operator, Roads Branch, Llandovery, has retired after 15 years’ service with the Commission.
Picture: Area Civil Engineer, Colin David; David Pocock; Ifor Morris and his granddaughter; Mrs Morris and Ron Bromley.
Eric Dinsdale, Forester, Moffat, South Scotland, has retired after 30 years’ service with the Commission, in the forests of South Scotland.
Ernie Goodland, who looked after the Registry at the Bristol Conservancy Office, has retired. He joined the Bristol Office in 1971.
Margaret Stanton, Supervisor of Typists, South West England, has retired after nearly 34 years’ service with the Commission.
Peggy Butt, Alice Holt Lodge, has retired after nearly 30 years’ service with the Commission, with the last 10 years spent in the Library.
Obituaries
Dick Collins, Relief Campsite Warden in the New Forest from 1978 until least year, has died.
Idris Griffiths, Retired Head Forester, in charge of Dovey Corris, Gwydyr and Dyfnant has died. Born in 1913, he joined the Commission in 1931 and retired in 1973.
Hugh MacRae, retired Head Forester, has died. He joined the Commission as a boy at Glenbrittle in Skye in 1932 and worked there as a Ganger until 1949, when he was promoted to Foreman at North Strome Forest. Further promotion to Forester and a move to Raasay, and he served at Lael and Bonar Bridge before retirement in 1972.
Mr O.I. Morris, former Head Forester at Rheidol Forest, Wales, has died. He retired in 1972 after 40 years’ service with the Commission.
Alec Mundell, former Forest Craftsman at Moffat Forest, Scotland, has died. He retired last December.
Ken Netherwood, ex-Clerical Officer, Cambridge, has died, just over a year after retiring.
John Parker, Workshop Manager, Dalby Workshop, has died. He joined the Commission as a Mechanic at Redesdale in 1956. He became a Mobile Mechanic in 1961 and transferred to Dalby Workshop as Foreman in Charge in 1970. He was promoted to P&TO IV Workshop Manager in 1975.
Mr G.J. Ross (Jack Ross) has died aged 61. In 1947 he worked as a signalman in Garve railway station and subsequently joined the Forestry Commission at Torrachilty Forest, where he remained until his death.
Mike Westlake, Head Forester, Lake Vyrnwy, North Wales, died suddenly at work. He began his career in forestry in 1949 aged 23 and became a Forester serving in several forests in North Wales. In 1972, he became Head Forester at Dyfi, then Coed Sarnau and finally at Lake Vyrnwy in 1980.
Fred Williams, former Head Forester at Draethen Forest, Wales, has died aged 77. He joined the Commission as a Forest Worker at Rheola in 1941 and retired in 1968.
Keith Wilson, Publications Officer, has died at the age of 61. He has been with the Commission for 33 years after joining the Research Branch at the Forest of Ae in 1948. He became DO I in 1958 and his districts included Kielder, West Sussex and Surrey. He was appointed Publications Officer in 1976.
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