What is the Community Copse?
The Community Copse is a space for the practice of traditional woodland management and crafts, which in turn helps to maintain biodiversity on the Scolton Manor site and keeps the woods healthy.
These woods are managed by a small, volunteer-led “Coppice Club” in exchange for access to land and materials to practice traditional skills such as woodcarving, furniture-making, bushcraft, foraging, and leather tanning.
The copse is also a space for educational workshops during the drier Summer months, which will be delivered by Silbers CIC (Community Interest Company) and Coppice Club volunteers.
What is Coppicing?
Coppicing is a traditional skill that has been practiced since the stone age, where trees are cut carefully from the base in a way which encourages re-growth of many straight, thin shoots.
It’s a way of obtaining timber from the land whilst also caring for trees in the process, and an important part of humankind’s role in nature as “ecosystem engineers”.
The Magic of Coppicewoods
Coppicing can enhance the ecological richness of our landscape. Felling trees creates temporary clearings which in turn benefit other plant species –bluebells, wood anemones and marsh marigolds to name a few – and animals including butterflies, birds, deer, and dormice.
If done with care and consistency, coppicing can also help to greatly extend the lifespan of an individual tree. Some coppiced trees can live to 1000 years or more, provided that the trees are tended properly and treated with care.
It’s quite possible that early humans learnt this skill from beavers or large herbivores, whose evolutionary relationship with trees reaches back into deep time. Even just here in Britain, it’s likely that we’ve been coppicing for around 10,000 years (almost as long as there have been trees in the landscape)!
Our ancestors would have relied on clearings such as these for most of their food, which may be why sacred groves were of such important to the druids of ancient Britain.
Coppice Crafts
Coppicing can be used to produce a vast range of goods and tools, as well as firewood and building timber.
Before plastic and other materials became the norm, most household items including shoes, brushes, storage pots, cutlery, fishing equipment, and more could be made from coppiced wood and woven willow.
The long, straight poles are excellent for building fences and formed a key part of stone-age roundhouse construction.
Get Involved
If you’d like to take part in our woodland workshops, keep an eye on Scolton Manor’s “Upcoming Events” webpage, as well as noticeboards on site.
For further information please contact James Silbers – james@silberscic.org.uk or 07985929669
If you’re in need of a space to practice a traditional woodland craft, and would like to help with the management of our coppice woods, please speak to the Scolton Manor team who can put you in touch with one of our Coppice Club team.
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