Photo Diary Continued (apologies for gratuitous dog pics)

From top: the 1934 living van comes together; seconds before the fall; CofD; living van windows salvaged from pitman's cottage on Hardown Hill; CofD atop Lamberts, dimity...

Visual Diary

I've been taking a few photographs in the woods this last month - a sort of photo diary - we've been v.busy hedge laying, felling, snedding, logging, digging, planting, building, renovating and signwriting.

Flintbatch Felling Juice... Timber!

I've just been over the fields to a remote barn where our cider press resides for the winter. She was built by Mr. Miller sometime before 1979, using reclaimed ironwork from a much older press and made mobile by the fitting of cast iron wheels off an old shepherd's hut.

Used both to press his own cider, Mr. Miller also demonstrated cider pressing at the Honiton Hill Rally, in East Devon. The press still has a couple of brass plates commemorating his participation at both the 1979 and 1980 rallies.

We will shortly be moving the old press to a new home at Flintbatch, where we will be building a cider shed, in which to keep her. Thanks to her mobility, we will be available for both pressing in the woods this autumn as well as coming to you and pressing your own apples, whether you're after cider or apple juice.

Looking at the press, we may well have to replace the bed, as well as obviously cleaning up the ironwork which has rusted over the 10 years she has lain idle.

Finally, we will be selling our apple juice and cider with our woodland 'pig-on-a-spit'at various events this summer. If you would like to know more about this, or want us to come along with our old-fashioned cider van, cider press and roast hog to your party or event, please call Guy (07984 783 322) or Ben (0777 070 1887).

Right, time for a drink!

The 1934 Norfolk Living Van takes shape...

We are currently renovating a very special old girl - a roadman's living van dating from the early 1930's. Her chassis is infact a First World War Army Lorry, (her brass plates are dated August 1918, so it is a moot point wether she saw active service), but post war she was converted into a haulage lorry for Blakeney Motor Engineers in North Norfolk.

For how long she remained a works lorry, we don't know, but at some point (we're guessing about 1934) she was converted into a roadman's living van. These were pulled by a traction engine and provided a home from home for the workmen. At 22 feet long, with a separate living and sleeping area, she could have been home for up to four men.

She was bought by Ben Short in 2009, and transported to West Dorset from the Cotswolds. Unfortunately, after uncovering the wooden sub-frame on her top half, it was decided a total rebuild was neccessary. We have saved as much original timber as possible to include in the rebuild, as well as saving old floorboards and some 1930's Arts & Crafts windows from a nearby pitman's cottage on Hardown Hill.

Springs have been replaced and a steering lock for the front axle has been designed and fitted. The original drawbar has been reinforced, too. Her steel chassis has also been shotblasted and given several coats of red oxide, followed by three topcoats of MF vintage grey.

As I've already written, the Norfolk Van will become Flintbatch HQ, residing in the yard at the top of the hill. As well as an office and part-time woodland shop, we hope to be able to offer her as a gallery space for artists, as well as a mobile pub for local villages who are now, sadly, without their pub.

What we do... A few recent photograps.

1. Charcoal Burner's hut and edge of kiln - a burn takes 24 hours and as we have to rotate the kiln's chimneys every three hours, this means overnighting in the woods. The renovated 1968 Shropshire County Contracting Van affords us some comfort during the night.

2. Clive the Forest Terrier guards some recently cut cordwood on Flintbatch's steep slopes.

3. During felling we sort timber into blanks for logs and branchwood for the charcoal kiln. The spray or 'lop and top' is burnt on site. Years ago, it would have been tied by hazel twine into bundles of 'faggots' and sold as fuel for bread ovens.

4. A rough design for our cider's bottle labels - based on typographic fonts found on an 1827 coppice sale poster. The paper has been died a sepia colour by wiping used tea bags on it.

5. An example of Flintbatch's hedge-laying and fence making work. Midland 'bullock' style hedge and oak picket fence.

Want to know more? Please call.

Guy: 07984 783 322

Ben: 0777 070 1887

Greenwood Courses - Woodland Management - Cider Van & Hog Roast for hire - Traditional Gates & Fencing - Charcoal Burning - Hedge Laying

Welcome to Flintbatch Working Wood, Far West Dorset

Flintbatch Working Wood is an agro-forestry project in West Dorset, five miles north of Lyme Regis. It is run by Guy Furner. Guy has spent the last 20 years working woods all over the South of England, from Suffolk to the Somerset Levels.

Flintbatch Working Wood covers 16 acres of mixed broadleaf and conifer woodland. Planted mainly with even-aged Beech, Alder, Scots and Douglas Fir, Guy has spent the last couple of years thinning and replanting with Sweet Chestnut and Hazel coppice, as well as introducing woodland rides and a mosaic of ponds in the valley bottom.

On these ponds several species of duck are bred. Within the wood, we also farm pigs, guinea fowl, turkeys and poultry. Other aspects of the project include charcoal burning, green woodworking (we make gates and cleft post and rail fencing), greenwood courses, woodland management for other small woods in the area, firewood production and hedge-laying.

We are also in the process of renovating a 1934 roadman's living van, which will be parked in our yard, above the woods. We envisage this to be a multi-functional space, part office, part woodland shop, but also an art gallery and, occasionally, a mobile pub.

To this end, Flintbatch have recently acquired a vintage double screw cider press and have pressed their first barrel which will be ready in the spring. Come the autumn, this will be available for pressings in the woods. We will also be available for hire with our travelling cider hut and woodland hog-roast this summer.

Helping Guy Furner in the day-to-day running of Flintbatch is Ben Short. Ben was formerly a full-time volunteer forester with the National Trust. He also contributes a monthly online column called 'The Charcoal Burner's Chair' for Guy Mallinson's Woodland Workshop.