As a green woodworker in Cornwall, I have in the past been known to source coppiced Hazel rods from as far afield as Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire! So 16 years ago ago my wife Ele and I decided to plant our own coppice not being at all sure if it would work as ‘clearly there must be a reason why coppice isn’t grown in Cornwall’.
Last week we coppiced a small hazel coup which is now on its 3rd rotation (there was a long delay before the first cut while we built our house). The results are astounding! Virtually every rod we cut is a top quality product.
We have binders, weavers and stakes for hedging and hurdles; 8’ bean poles up to straight 14’ poles; bale spikes for straw bale builds and of course pea sticks. The small amount of brash and the few curved rods will be put to good use in our bread oven and wood gasifying stove. There’s not even enough brash to make biochar!
The Sweet Chestnut coppice is also looking very promising but won’t be ready to cut for a few years yet. So our next challenge is to create a market for coppice products in Cornwall…. If you’re interested in buying any Hazel from us then please have a look at the Heartwood Creations website. Also, if you have any suggestions for marketing then please do get in touch.
You may notice this is the first newsletter to be posted in quite some while.
This is partly due to the fact that we are now embracing other social media such as instagram (@pentiddy). Please follow us for infrequent, but hopefully interesting posts!