Slasher Magazine Summary: Publication No. 56 – August 1952
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.
Some Sidelights on Tintern - A "Cut" From Every Deer
An extract from a grant made by Richard, Duke of York, from "his castle of Uske" in 1436, gives the story of Tintern Forest in a "Cut" From Every Deer South Wales. This is the area now known as Tintern North and Centre Beats. It is "By an indenture of the 8th of July, in the 14th year of our most dread sovereign lord King Henry VI, between the high and mighty prince, Richard, Duke of York, Earl of Marche and Ulster, lord of Wigmore and Clare, on the one part and John ap Howell ap Jenkins of Pantyglasse, one of the gentlemen ushers of the Chamber on the other part - the aforesaid Richard, Duke of York, grants to the said John ap Howell, and to his heirs for evermore, the office of Master Forester and Keeper of the Forest and Chase called Wye's Wood, lying within the lordship of Trellech; parcel of the earldom of Marche and to be Chief Keeper of all Game within the said Forest or Chase, and liberties of the same; which liberties and bounds extend from the highway leading from Devauden, in length towards Monmouth, and in breadth to the River Wye,"
Among various rights and privileges, this grant gave to John ap Howell two stags in summer, two hinds in winter, and two wild boars together with a "cut" from every deer killed within the bounds of the Forest of Wye’s Wood. Tantalising reading in meat-hungry 1952.
Tintern Forest Sawmill and Depot were erected on the site of an old wire works, reputed to have been the first of their kind in this country, and believed to be set up for the manufacture of iron wire by Germans or Danes who settled in Tintern in 1570. The factory was favoured by the nearness of iron ore in the Forest of Dean; the surrounding woods at Tintern afforded a supply of charcoal, and adequate water power was provided by the Angidy River.
By 1592 the wire works were important enough to be associated with a Parliamentary Bill; this was never passed, but it sought to prohibit the manufacture in Monmouthshire of any iron other than "that for the service of the late erected wyre works at Tinterne."
It may be said that the Bill ranks as one of the earliest efforts to conserve British woods. In the making of iron, it is recorded that one acre of trees was required to produce three tons of iron.
Hockey at Helsinki - Honour for a District Officer
District Officer W.A. Lindsay-Smith, of Bettws-y-Coed, North Wales, was selected to represent Great Britain at hockey in the Olympic Games at Helsinki.
"Breaking Up" at Schools - Prominent Visitors Present the Certificates
"Breaking Up" at the Forester Training Schools this year was marked by the attendance of several prominent visitors, who undertook the presentation of certificates to men who successfully completed the course.
Mr J. Henderson Stewart, joint Under Secretary of State for Scotland presented certificates at Glentress, near Peebles;
Mr W.H. Guillebaud, our Deputy Director General presented certificates at Gwydyr, North Wales;
Mr O.J. Sangar, the Director for England presented certificates at Benmore, Argyllshire, and renewed his acquaintance with West Scotland, which he knew so well in Divisional Officer days;
Mr A.P. Long, Director for Wales presented certificates at Lynford Hall, in East Anglia, where he was Divisional Officer from 1926 to 1930;
Mr H.A. Turner Secretary of the Forestry Commission, visited the Forest of Dean to present the certificates at Parkend.
In an article on the history of the Dean School, written by Mr C.O. Hanson for an early issue of "The Deansday Book", the School magazine, Mr Hanson recalled how he was appointed Instructor and opened the Dean School, the first of all forestry schools, on 11th January 1904, with nine students, all already in the Crown service. Accommodation consisted of one room in the Deputy Surveyor's office in Coleford, but in 1905 the School was moved to Parkend and housed in a wooden hut of two rooms. "The classroom was draughty and cold," recorded Mr. Hanson, "and I was allowed no coal or firewood. We started by wearing our overcoats at lectures in the winter but, as this was not conducive to good work, I purchased coal at my own expense."
In 1910 the School moved to new premises, which took the form of a reconstructed engine house near Parkend Station, now part of the present School.
More About Telegraph Poles - Wooden Ones More Serviceable
In the May issue of The Slasher, when describing the forests of South Wales, we said our only complaint with Rheola arose from the sight of metal telegraph poles. Then, in June, came a note from Education Officer I.A. Robbie of Glentress Forester Training School. "I only wish," he said, "we had the good fortune to have some cheap type of metal pole in all forests". He went on to advocate the use of the metal pole in preference to the wooden on the grounds that the former is less vulnerable to fire.
Five years ago, Clerical Officer J.S. Young of the York Office was a technician with the Post Office and was specially concerned with telephone lines. "Apart from metal poles being unsightly," he says, "there are other reasons why a wooden pole route is the more desirable. For example, in adverse conditions, when there is snow, icing, or heavy mist, a wooden route could remain serviceable through the poles themselves acting as insulators against 'creeping loss'. When a telephone line is struck by lightning, the current is often carried for miles until a lightning 'protector' is encountered, whereupon the current is carried safely to 'earth' ; but when metal poles are used it is quite common for the lightning current to 'jump' the insulators and flash down the pole to 'earth', so that one could quite easily envisage this as the cause of a forest fire."
Mr. Robbie records an instance where wooden poles were burned down during a forest fire. "I would say that if the fire was bad enough to burn down the poles, the cadmium copper telephone wires would long before have been destroyed. These wires have quite a low melting point, as proved so often each year on November 5th when bonfires are made below the telephone route. Once, when a kite was wrapped round a number of telephone wires, I hit on the brilliant idea of tying a piece of petrol-soaked rag to some rods, and burning the kite and string clear. Before I had finished all the wires were down across the road."
Drama in The Forest - Glendaruel's Claim To Fame
Augmented by a few Finnish houses, the little village of Glendaruel, some 20 miles from Dunoon, and one of the beauty spots of the Cowal Peninsular, recently came into the limelight where dramatic art is concerned. The Drama Section of the Community Club entered the Cowal Drama Festival and gave a most creditable performance of "The Rake of Mauchline", Forester H.C. Stout being the producer and Mrs Stout the stage manager. Principal parts were taken by Forest Clerk Kathrine Campbell and Forest Worker Angus Martin, and the latter, as "Rabbie Burns", was judged the most outstanding player of the Festival.
Lakeland Forest of Thornthwaite - Described in New Booklet
The Lakeland Forest of Thornthwaite is described in the latest booklet in the Britain's Forests series. This unit, which was started by the Commission in 1920, now covers nearly 5,000 acres, of which almost 4,000 acres are under plantations.
"The panorama of Thornthwaite," says the booklet, "shows the varied greens of spruce and pine with, in winter, the russet or pale gold of the leafless larches, blending with the many other hues - the blue of the lakes, the brown of the heather, the grey of the crags and the white of the scudding clouds - that give to the Lakeland landscapes their unique colour and variety. This view is forever changing, with shifts in the wind or weather, and the passing of the sun or the seasons."
Thornthwaite has been successfully formed despite difficult soil conditions and exposure to which much of the forest is subject. A great deal of the forest has reached the thinning stage, the area thinned each year being about 500 acres. The output already amounts to about 3,500 tons of timber a year.
In order to bring out the produce from Thornthwaite, it has been necessary to build some 18 miles of new forest roads, which wind up the hillsides, following well-planned curves and gradients. The labour force employed at Thornthwaite is about 70 strong and the present rate of employment contrasts strongly with the position when bare land was taken over little more than 30 years ago; at the time only a few shepherds and gamekeepers were employed over the same area.
Like other booklets in the same series, that on Thornthwaite is well illustrated. It goes a long way towards providing an answer to the critics who maintain that the Commission's operations are out of place in Lakeland.
Some Sad Days For Mr Fox
From December to May, trapper Malcolm Kerr of Blairadam, East Scotland, and Mr Thomas Miller, the Cleish and District Fox Club trapper, helped rid the countryside of 79 foxes on Forestry Commission property and adjoining land. Foxes killed on Forestry Commission property were 9 adults and 14 cubs; on private land were 12 adults and 44 cubs.
The Buzzards
Recently Sir William Taylor wrote to us, saying that on one occasion, near Llandovery, he saw eleven buzzards in the air together. "I cannot beat Sir William's buzzards," writes Mr G.B. Ryle, Conservator at the Office of Director, England, "but I once saw 14 ravens in a flock, close to Glasfynydd Forest, in South Wales."
A bird watcher, writing to a newspaper, claimed he had seen, more cuckoos in the last two years than ever before, and had seen six of these birds on a field of 20 acres. The same writer also witnessed "a fight to the death between two male cuckoos," and asked if combat is the way in which the older birds meet their end.
Correspondence and Official Memos - The Way We Live!
An extract from a memo, received in a Director's office:
"No mention is made of expenditure on the maintenance of buildings. Here again my correspondence with the Controller of Finance produced the ruling that expenditure on repairs to farm buildings, assumed to mean, stables, cowsheds, pigsties, etc., should be charged to ’E.9(b) unless occupied by Commission employees."
Memo to a Director: "Once the fence is erected the position is maternally altered." Memo from the Director: "Should not the word 'maternally' mean, materially?" Reply to Director: "To prevent any miscarriage of interpretation, please amend 'maternally' to read 'materially'."
Newcomers
Executive Officer W.H. Foard to New Forest;
Executive Officer D.P. Pringle to N(S);
Clerical Officer T.G. Griffiths to S(W);
Clerical Officer G. Morgan to S(W);
Clerical Officer J. Elias to S(W);
Clerical Officer P.H. Hamilton to Dean.
Transfers
Divisional Officer M.J. Penistan from Dumfries, S(S) to Aberdeen E(S);
District Officer K.P. Thallon from Education, Northerwood House to York, NE(E);
Head Forester G.W. Hollis from Arundel, SE(E) to Education, Dean;
Forester B. Gale from Education, Dean to Northerwood House;
Forester J.R. Maxtone from Drummond Hill, E(S) to Bin, E(S);
Forester C.O. MacIntosh from Inverinate, N(S) to Leanachan, N(S);
Forester D.R. Harvey from Ringwood, New to Clipstone, NW(E);
Foreman T.C. Redburn from Research, Leicester to Research, Edinburgh;
Foreman W.E. Coates from Research, Anfield to Research, Edinburgh;
Foreman R. McGeorge from Carrick, S(S) to Research, Mabie, S(S);
Foreman G.F. Thomas from Packington, NW(E) to Charnwood, NW(E);
Foreman A.J. Cunningham from Barcaldine, W(S) to Loch Ard, W(S).
Birth
To District Officer John Matthews, Geneticist at the Forest Research Station and Mrs Matthews, the birth of a son, George Michael.
Obituaries
Sir John Sutherland, who for many years was Assistant Commissioner for Forestry in Scotland, died recently in Edinburgh aged 86. He was knighted in 1935.
In 1912 Sir John, as John Donald Sutherland, was appointed a member of the old Scottish Board of Agriculture, one of his duties being to initiate forestry works. He served on a number of committees concerned with the development of forestry and during the first world war, he was for a time in charge of home timber production. In 1917 he went to France as Assistant Director of Forestry, with the rank of Colonel in the Royal Engineers, and was twice mentioned in despatches.
In 1919 on the establishment of the Forestry Commission, Sir John was appointed Assistant Commissioner for Scotland and during his 15 years in this office, he was responsible for the development of the Commission's work in Scotland, and also concerned himself with the interests of private woodland owners. In 1934 he was appointed a Forestry Commissioner and retired in 1942.
The death has occurred of Mr John Cameron who retired in 1939 and moved to Bath, after serving as Land Agent under the Assistant Commissioners in Scotland almost from the establishment of the Forestry Commission. His previous service had been in the Department of Agriculture for Scotland. He was a talented artist and had pictures hung in the Scottish Royal Academy, and he illustrated Thomas Henderson's "The Findhorn, the River of Beauty". On his retirement Mr Cameron moved to Bath, where he had a wide circle of friends.
Nineteen year old James (Hamish) Thomson, Corrennie Forest, East Scotland, who was undergoing his period of National Service, has died a soldier's death. Gunner Thomson of the 6th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery was killed in a gunnery accident in Egypt.
In a letter to Hamish's mother, his Commanding Officer spoke highly of the lad's popularity and said: "Young as he was, he had earned a firm place in the affection of his officers and comrades. He died a soldier's death." The funeral took place with full military honours. Hamish was employed at Strathyre before working at Corrennie.