Slasher Magazine Summary: Publication No. 46 – October 1951
The scanned images of the Slasher were produced by and courtesy of the Forest Research Data and Information Team staff based at Roslin, where some of the original copies are located. The Forestry England Information Knowledge Management Team and New Forest Heritage made available copies of The Slasher from their collections. Brian Mahony of the FC Retirement Association devised and coordinates the Slasher Project and has been instrumental in locating many missing editions and coordinating the searches to locate all the earlier publication numbers.
The content summary below was again very kindly compiled by Diane Birkett, Bedfordshire. See PDF attachment link below the text summary to view the full document. A total of over 420 issues or publications were produced between January 1948 and the final publication in 2010.
Red Letter Day for Llwynygog
The Forest Village of Llwynygog had a red letter day this month. But perhaps you've never heard of Llwynygog? If not, we must tell you, first of all, that Llwynygog, or Cuckoo Grove, as it is in English, is a forest village which the Forestry Commission is building in Montgomeryshire. It is the forerunner of other such villages, and it rests, so to speak, on the shoulder of a foothill in the shadow of the Plynlimon Range; its neighbour is the quaintly named village of Staylittle, and Llanidloes is about nine miles away. Readers will hardly need to be told why Llwynygog is being built, but perhaps a word or two of explanation will not be out of place. The village is coming into being because it is necessary adequately to house the increasing labour force employed in the nearby Hafren Forest, and to have workmen on hand in case of fire; and to enable employees and their families living as they do in a remote area, to enjoy a full social life.
Now the day of all days for Llwynygog came about when the new Village Hall, destined to be the very hub of community life, was opened by Alderman G.F. Hamer, Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire. The Hall is a sizeable one, and will undoubtedly prove a great boon, for it has a stage and plenty of room for dancing, and includes a kitchen in which refreshments and meals for future functions will be prepared. The County Library will make the Hall its centre, and the building will be used not only by residents of Llwynygog, but by farmers and others who live in the vicinity. Trustees have been appointed, and a management Committee has been chosen by the villagers from among themselves.
Mr Lloyd Owen, Chairman of the Commission's National Committee for Wales presided, and an address of welcome was given by Lord Robinson. In his speech, Lord Robinson said the total area to be afforested at Hafren is just over 7,500 acres, leaving a balance of some 3,000 acres which include a number of farms and holdings. This year 53 people are employed at Hafren, and next year 74 will be required.
"Llwynygog", said Lord Robinson, "will be the nerve centre of the forest, and the 20 houses built to date are but the beginning in an orderly scheme of development in the course of which Llwynygog will grow to 80 houses with modern amenities."
In due course a saw-mill or sawmills would arrive, and probably a local industry for the further manufacture of sawn timber. The Commissioners were anxious to provide good houses and pleasant amenities for Welshmen. "Perhaps", said Lord Robinson, "I ought to have said for Welsh women, because it is they who make a house into a home and because it is with them equally with the men that the development of this hill country rests. We believe, and this little village hall is a symbol of our belief, that in such surroundings Welsh people will find it possible to live contented lives, secure in their own faith and in the practice of their own ancient Welsh culture".
Alderman Hamer said that thanks to the Forestry Commission, there was a revolution in Welsh rural life which could not fail to bring increased prosperity. The rehabilitation of the hill districts would in due course prove to be an untold blessing, and when that fact was realised, the opposition and criticism in regard to forestry projects should largely disappear.
A vote of thanks to Alderman Hamer was proposed by Professor Alun Roberts, a member of the National Committee for Wales, and among the company supporting the speakers was Mr A.P. Long, Director of Forestry for Wales. The Conservator for North Wales, Mr F.C. Best, and other senior officers, were also present.
In due course there will be more developments at Llwynygog, apart from house building. More shops will be built (only one has been erected to date) and it is hoped that educational and recreational facilities will be extended. The children have already been provided with their own corner, where the swings and football pitch are in great demand.
The names of roads-to-be have been chosen, for example Glan Clywedog, or the Shore of the Clywedog; Fford-y-Coedwyr, or Foresters' Road, and Long Road, which is particularly apt when one remembers the great interest taken in the establishment of the village by Director for Wales.
Llwynygog has been planned by Mr Alwyn Lloyd,, the well known Welsh architect.
Footnote. It was announced during the proceedings that Forester J.T. Jones of Hafren, was promoted Head Forester the day before the ceremony.
New Forestry Commissioner
Mr Stanley C. Longhurst, J.P., of the firm of Messrs F. Longhurst and Sons, Epsom, Surrey, who is very well known in the home timber trade, has been appointed a Forestry Commissioner. Thus the Commissioners now include, as required by the new Forestry Act, "a person who has special knowledge and experience of the timber trade".
Mr Longhurst has already given much valuable help to the Department, having served as a member of the Home Grown Timber Advisory Committee. Under the Act this Committee has become a statutory body.
Notes On Bull-Fighting
Our reference last month to bull-fighting in Madrid has prompted a correspondent to send us several interesting facts, some based on statements in Ernest Hemingway's "Death in the Afternoon"
Here they are:
Some strains of bull are capable of memorising the artifice and strategy employed by the bullfighters and, if they survive a fight, are increasingly dangerous when next in the arena. Such bulls, says Hemingway, should be fought and killed before they become too knowledgeable.
A bull is afraid of nothing on earth, and in various towns in Spain, in special and barbarous exhibitions, a bull has charged an elephant repeatedly; bulls have killed both lions and tigers, charging them as blithely as they would the picadors.
From a standing start the fighting bull will outrun a horse for 25 yards, although the horse will beat the bull in 50 yards; the bull can turn more quickly than a polo pony, and at four years of age he has the strength in his neck and shoulder muscles to lift a horse and rider and throw them over his back.
In Madrid our correspondent was shown the little chapel near the arena in which the Matador prays before fighting the bull. Behind the chapel he saw the small tiled operating theatre, equipped with two stainless steel operating tables; and then the tiny hospital in which bullfighters might lie after injury. Following a fight in Valencia he went into the museum adjoining the amphitheatre and, chancing to glance out of the window, saw five bulls, killed that afternoon, skinned and hanging by their feet from hooks. A sixth was being skinned, and nearby there waited a white van in which the carcases were to be taken to a local hospital for the benefit of patients. The sending of the meat to hospitals is, it seems, quite customary.
More About Dialect
Here are some more examples of strange dialect.
The East Anglian for snail, writes a reader, is more usually HODDYMEDOD (not, as we gave it last month, HODMEDOD). One of the most curious words in this dialect, however, is TEETERMATAWTER, an onomatopoeic word meaning a see-saw.
Then, also in East Anglia, there is DICKY, a donkey; PAIGLE, a buttercup; and MAWTHER, a buxom wench. Other peculiarities are the use of BOR as a term of address between males, meaning pal; the overworked WHOOLY (thoroughly), pronounced as a short HOOLY; and also FARE, wider in meaning than "seem".
Foreman D.R. Beaumont, of Micheldever, SE England, has sent along a comprehensive list of unusual words and phrases:-
Hampshire: PUNCHEON, fencing stake; BRISHER, poor or inferior article; GETTING TOUGH, getting wet; BUZLY TOPPED, bushy-topped tree; TEALER, small peg for use with rabbit snare.
Kent: LOOKER, shepherd on Romney Marsh; DOLLY, smallest pig in the litter; BUMBLESOME, clumsy; HAMES, wood or metal on horse collar.
Northants: MIDDLING, not very well; COTTER, WHITTLE and CHUNTER, to grumble.
Essex: MOB, to grumble.
East Anglia, HEDGE BETTY, hedge sparrow; RANNY, shrewmouse; RIP, short handled slasher; DULLY OVER CROOKSES, rainy-looking sky; BOTTY, proud; CAD, smallest pig in the litter (as DOLLY, Kent); SCAFFLE, spade; TRAVES, corn stocks.
The following may be peculiar to Suffolk: MIDDLING, quite well (as opposed to its meaning in Northants.); DUTPHEN, bridle; STOVER, red clover; DAG, morning dew; TITS, faggots; TOD TREE', often an oak from which limbs have been cut; and COBBING, cutting from such a tree after it has grown branches large enough for firewood; BATTLINGS, firewood poles.
Mr H.W. Gulliver, Chief Clerk, Woking, contributes the following New Forest examples: SPAGGER, sparrow; SCUGGY, squirrel.
Day At The South Bank
By the time this is read, the Festival of Britain exhibition on the South Bank will have closed. Nevertheless, very many of us saw this show and some may be interested in the impressions of one reader (who prefers to remain anonymous) in particular.
"What a day! This exhibition of amazing wonders shocked the mind of an ordinary mortal, showing as it did all the phenomenal advances in discovery and invention wrought by the wit and labour of men of the British race. But, while we advance marvellously in knowledge of nature and the sciences, and in the application of this knowledge, it would seem that we step backwards in all that touches the Arts. Modern art is no longer 'nature to advantage dressed', as witness the very peculiar sculptures which were on show, and the garish schemes of colour. Architecturally, the exhibition was a hotch-potch of the inartistic. Construction conspicuously lacked the nobility of Paxboro's masterpiece of a hundred years ago, which will be remembered when the unbalanced designs of the 1951 layout are lost in the confusion of their own incongruity. It may be that a great opportunity was lost. There was none of the grace, albeit stuccoed, of Kiralfy's White City Exhibition and none of the mud, for South Bank was excellently paved. It was a matter of regret that the utility and symbolism of the elegantly proportioned Skylon altogether escaped me.
"Under cover one gained new impressions. The theme of the Land and the People was inspiring and, to one not mechanically minded, was high in the list of preferences. Agriculture and Forestry were delightfully staged, with good contour models to instruct us regarding the aim and import of the work of the Forestry Commission.
"The Dome of Discovery left one speechless in its bewildering scope of human achievement, and elsewhere the skill of the craftsman was depicted in all its many forms. The Royal Festival Restaurant provided an excellent lunch, but none of England's famous draught beer!
"A memorable and happy day, more exhausting than any day's work within my recollection".
Conservancy Staff Visits Dean
Members of the staff of the South West Conservancy Office, Bristol, recently visited the Forest of Dean, by arrangement with the Deputy Surveyor, Mr J.Q. Williamson.
The party proceeded by coach to Christchurch, where they were met by the Deputy Surveyor, and then from a vantage point at Highmeadow witnessed with great interest a number of forest operations. Later the Wye was crossed to the Monmouthshire bank by an ingenious wooden bridge supported by two cables. "As the party proceeded in single file," writes our correspondent, "the bridge swayed and rocked, and this, coupled with the height over the water, promoted some uneasy internal feelings. Fortunately this hazard was met before lunch!"
Lunch was taken on the bank of the Wye at one of the river’s most beautiful stretches, and later some fine oak and ash were inspected and the three year thinning cycle explained. At Symonds Yat, the famous beauty spot, the river was crossed by ferry, after which the party spent an instructive hour in the forest nursery.
Following "a splendid tea" at the Forester Training School at Parkend, the party left for Bristol, having spent, in the words of our correspondent, "a most enjoyable and instructive day".
Culinary Department
Several readers have written in after reading last month's paragraph about strange dishes.
Mr E.C. Lane, of the Shrewsbury Office, who spent several years with the Reparations Division, B.A.O.R., tells us he has seen the carcases of foxes hanging in butchers' shop windows in Germany.
Col. G.E.H. Philbrick, Conservancy Engineer, North Wales, also has something to say and, before reproducing his remarks, we must make it clear that we absolve all bona fide caterers and traders from the implications or allegations.
"Some three years ago," says Col. Philbrick," a man living near Matlock told me that foxes shot in his county were sent to a certain game dealer, who disposed of the skins and sent the carcases to brother dealers in London, who sold them to restaurants which served them up as jugged hare. As the Editor of The Slasher and our Headquarters are in London, they may be interested.
"Of course, it is known that 'rabbit' in London is frequently felis domesticus, or the common cat. This applies both to the carcase which is eaten, and the fur with which females are wont to drape themselves!"
Transfers
F.G. Good, District Officer, Bristol, transferred to Cambridge;
L. Gillespie, District Officer, Aberdeen, transferred to Aberfoyle, W(S);
R. J.G. Horne, District Officer, Kinellar, E(S) transferred to Fochabers, E(S);
J.G. Chrystall, District Officer, Aberfoyle, W(S), transferred to Edinburgh;
A. Gracie, Forester, Rendlesham, E(E) transferred to Methwold, E(E);
A.W. Officer, Forester, Clunes, N(S) transferred to Portclair, N(S);
J. Allan, Forester, Kemnay, E(S), transferred to Edensmuir, E(S);
I. Garrioch, Forester, Kilgrammie, S(S), transferred to Glentress School;
T.S. Fraser, Forester, Loch Ard, W(S), transferred to Rowardennan, W(S);
F. Stephenson, Forester, Kielder, NE(E), transferred to Ampleforth, NE(E);
F. Macpherson, Forester, North Strome, N(S), transferred to Laiken, N(S);
P.J. Garrow, Forester, Edensmuir, E(S), transferred to Rannoch, E(S);
K.H.C. Trodd, Foreman, Alice Holt, SE(E), transferred to Arundel, SE(E);
T.G. Fryer, Foreman, Dean, transferred to Coed-y-Brenin, N(W);
D.F.D. Black, Foreman, Laiken, N(S), transferred to North Strome, N(S);
F.A. Rees, Foreman, Margam, S(W), transferred to Gamrhiw, S(W);
D.A. Robinson, Foreman, Newborough, N(W), transferred to Dean;
F.G. Bradbeer, Clerk of Works, Wareham, SW(E), transferred to Bristol.
Appointments
T.J. Attenborough, Foreman, NW(E);
H. Bennett Foreman, NW(E);
S.G. Broer, Foreman, NW(E);
J.D. Bowie, Assistant Engineer, S(S);
F.R.L. Carter, Assistant Engineer, NW(E);
P.C.T. Wildash E.O. HQ.;
D.O. Davies, Clerical Officer, HQ.;
E.G. Loverock, Clerical Officer, HQ.;
G. Davis, Clerical Officer, NW(E);
R.J. Bell, E.O. who has returned from the Forces, goes to the Office of Director, Scotland.
Marriage
Miss Joyce Sharp, Executive Officer, married Forester W.T. Waters, of Alice Holt.
Obituary
John Harold Jones, Forest Worker, Coed-y-Brenin, North Wales, aged 24, who commenced work with the Commission in March 1947, drowned in a flooded river at Coed-y-Brenin. It is understood that Mr Jones and two companions were seeking shelter from heavy rain and, leaving Forestry Commission property, they attempted to cross the River Mawddach by a bridge of planks supported by wire ropes. There was a sudden break in one of the supporting wires and Mr Jones was thrown into the flooded river. Despite efforts to reach him, he was swept away and drowned. His companions were fortunate enough to be able to hang on to that support which did not break.