Small Woodland Owners' Group (SWOG)

Year: 2015

  • Artizans of Wood – Roundwood Timber Framing Course

    Earlier this month I attended the first roundwood timber framing course run by Artizans of Wood at the Dangstein Conservancy in Rogate. The course showed us how to construct a cruck or ‘A’ frame style building from round and somewhat irregular poles.

  • Made from Wood from the Wood

    I’ve been quite aware that a lot of my woodland craft products have been reaching a stage of functionality which will just about do, then pressure of time and other projects seem to move into my field of vision and take over.

  • SWOG Meeting, Catterick, 12 September

    SWOG Meeting, near Catterick 10am-1pm 12 September 2015 Following the popular meeting in Yorkshire in March, we can look forward to another on Saturday 12 September. Two SWOG families have kindly agreed to jointly host a meeting in their woods near Catterick in North Yorkshire. These two woods, which were once part of the Kiplin…

  • Seed Collection Workshop

    Vanessa Sutcliffe would like to invite  members of the Small Woodland Owners’ Group to attend a one-day workshop on Seed Collection, focussing on tree species in Wilderness Wood, Hadlow Down, East Sussex. Participants will learn how to approach and identify a group of trees, make a high quality seed collection and gather data and other…

  • July 2105 Newsletter

    Summer seems to be with us (for a while, anyway). In this month’s newsletter we have a timely feature on finding water in woodlands, news of the RFS Excellence in Forestry Awards, as well as an article on green woodworking in Devon. We can also promise a SWOG meeting in September and a 25% discount…

  • Oriental Chestnut Gall Wasp

    Charlton Clark from the The Forestry Commission has issued the following statement regarding the discovery of the orienteal gall wasp in an area of kent.

  • Axe-making course, Sweden, summer 2015

    Ken Hume of the Oxfordshire Woodland Group is looking for fellow enthusiasts to join him on an axe-making course in Sweden. Participants have the opportunity to make their ‘dream axe’ under the expert tuition and guidance of Lars Enander and Ulrika Stridsberg. Lars and Ulrika are expert blacksmiths, and Lars is the author of Swedish Blacksmithing, a book on…

  • June 2015 Newsletter

    Just in time for the glorious 1st of June, a glorious new SWOG newsletter. The deadline for the Woodland Capital Grant scheme is looming, there is news of a revised edition of the classic book, Badgers, Beeches and Blisters, and John Clark lets us into his firelighting secrets. We hope you enjoy it!

  • Launch of the Observatree Project

    Kate Hutchinson,   has  announced the official launch of the Observatree project today. More than 200 UK-wide Observatree volunteers have been trained as citizen scientists and we encourage everyone to be more observant and report possible signs of tree pests and diseases. Read the full story in our media release.     You can help us…

  • May 2015 Newsletter

    It’s an exciting week, but the SWOG newsletter is bucking national trends by ignoring the forthcoming election and recent royal birth. Instead, we have far more useful news for woodland folk. We discuss recent news to re-introduce the wild lynx to Britain John Clark passes on vital tips about firelighting Fran Southgate of the Sussex…

  • April 2015 Newsletter

    No, not an April  fool – just the latest edition of the SWOG newsletter. With news of a popular SWOG meeting in Yorkshire, it also includes a guide to handling and the maintenance of knives (and the law around them), as well as a feature about Rich’s long-term hedging project.

  • Planting a New Hedge

    For many woodland owners especially those with ancient woodlands, our hedges are our boundaries. They may have been planted 100’s of years ago, some still managed as hedges, having been layed, pollarded or coppiced many times, others are unrecognisable as a hedge, more a line of full grown trees which is what all hedges aspire…