Find answers about Three Copse Woodland Products, our sustainable British lumpwood charcoal, traditional coppice products, handmade besom brooms, leatherwork, woodland management, rural craft courses, and the Hampshire woodland that inspires everything we do.
Learn more about Three Copse Woodland Products — who we are as a family-run business, how we work within the Hampshire landscape, and the traditional skills, craftsmanship, and heritage woodland products we create to help support the sustainable management of our ancient woodland.
Answer: Three Copse Woodland Products is a trading name of Wesnet Services Ltd, a small family run company. You can find out more on our About us page. The company is run by Mum, Dad and Son Chris, John and Kester Westcott
Answer: Our woodland is in the heart of the Southdowns National Park at Clanfield in Hampshire where we make all of our woodland products as well as running our courses. We also have a workshop in Fareham where we make our leather goods.
Answer: Yes the business is run by Mum, Dad and Son Chris, John and Kester with each bringing their specific expertise to the party
Answer: We make a wide range of products from both wood and leather. These include charcoal, besom brooms, store logs, green turned wood products, leather belts, leather pouches, leather jewellery as well as a wide range of other related products for more information take a look at our product portfolio
Answer: We specialise in a range of heritage woodland crafts, some of which are now critically endangered. These include the making of besom brooms (broom squires) handmade leather goods such as belts, charcoal burning, pole lathe turning, coppicing
Answer: A copse is a small area of woodland normally on a farm within fields. In our case we took the three from the three woodland copses we own and manage and the fact there are three of us in the company.
Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do at Three Copse Woodland Products. Learn more about the products we create and how they support the sustainable management and restoration of our own Grown in Britain certified ancient woodland in Hampshire.
Answer: Coppicing is an ancient, sustainable woodland management technique involving cutting trees down to ground level (or a low stump), known as a “stool” to encourage rapid new growth. It is important for many reasons which include habitat management, sustainable products and of course jobs for rural workers.
Answer: Here at Three Copse we don’t just buy in products to sell on, we are actively managing our own Grown in Britain certified ancient woodland, which produces the wood for our products. Materials we can’t cut from our own woodland we cut from other local estates within 10 miles. More information about our woodland can be found on its own websIte
Answer: coppicing helps ancient woodland by allowing light to get to the woodland floor, many ancient woodlands have been coppiced for thousands of years. Our own woodland here in Hampshire has been coppiced for generations we have evidence that larger area of the wood where in coppice rotation as far back as the civil war and probably a thousand years before that.
Answer: Many of the woodland craft are the reason that many woodland sites still exist. Almost all of the woodland flora and fauna we see in our woodland today are directly linked to the tadeonal woodland management techniques that have been carried out over millennia. Species such as dormice have evolved around the coppice circle, while the need hazel nuts to fatten up for winter they eat flowers and fruit earlier in the year which you only find on younger coppice coupes.
Answer: Grown in Britain certification reduces unnecessary imports, by encouraging and supporting active and sustainable management of our own forests and woodlands.
Answer: Many of our products are eco-friendly by design as they are made from sustainably managed wood from our own woodland right here in Hampshire, where we have to use man made items in our products such as our leather work, we produce a product that is built to last for far longer than the norm there by reducing the need to replace items. We use the term inheritance fashion rather than fast fashion, meaning our items are designed to last several lifetimes
Answer: All of our timber comes from our own Grown in Britain certified woodland in the heart of the Southdowns in Hampshire, just outside of the village of Clanfield
Answer: The terms wood miles refers to the distance a timber product travels from point of production to point of use. So for a product such as our charcoal the average wood miles per bag could be as little as 2 or three miles depending on which outlet you buy from.
From our small Hampshire woodland to your BBQ, we answer all your questions — from where to buy our charcoal to how it’s traditionally made and why sustainable woodland management matters.
Answer: You can buy our charcoal from our outlets via our where to buy page or direct from our web shop
Answer: There are many reasons why British charcoal is better than imported so may in fact that we have written a blog about it, but the main reasons including British charcoal is chemical free, traceable and supports your local economy.
Answer: In our opinion you can’t beat British charcoal, it burns hotter for longer and needs no chemicals added to light it, it is supporting Uk employment, as wells as conservations and reduces your wood miles.
Answer: Yes, we only supply charcoal made right here in our own woodland. As a Grown in Britain certified woodland it is managed to the highest standards of sustainability; in practical terms that means that we can show you to the acre and in some cases the tree that your charcoal came from. Because we manage our woodland as it has always been managed it is one of the most bio diverse habitats you will find.
Answer: While we can’t speak for the great man himself, we did have the honour of Joining Jamie and Jimmy for a piece they did about British Lumpwood Charcoal as part of their “Friday night takeaway” series and Jamie cooked over our charcoal. We hope that Jamie Oliver is still using charcoal from his local charcoal burner.
Answer: For more than 6,000 years charcoal has been made using three main methods. Traditional earth burns used timber piles covered with soil and straw, carefully controlled over several days (up to a week). During the Industrial Revolution, ring kilns made production faster and more reliable. Today, many producers use modern retort systems, which heat the wood in a chamber using the wood gas for a cleaner, more efficient burn. You can find more in our blog on the subject
Answer: A retort kiln or more accurately a charcoal retort, is a system for producing charcoal that uses the wood gas or pyrolytic acid from the wood being charcoaled to run part of the process. In a charcoal retort you don’t set fire to the wood being chard you are basically cooking that wood to the point it has turned to carbon.
Answer: No, we do not any chemical to our charcoal, the only thing we add is time and love to make sure you get the best charcoal you can, we say it is easy to light rather than easy light
Answer: yes and no restaurant grad charcoal is graded from 50-100mm we grade form 19mm up so you will get some large chunks of charcoal but also some smaller pieces all will burn and can be used in different ways.
From birch to broomstick, we explore the history, craft and folklore of the traditional besom broom — from woodland harvesting and binding techniques to the myths behind the so-called witches’ broom.
Answer: Traditional besom broom are made from winter cut birch that has been seasoned in the dark, we then bundle and bind the birch with wire, before adding a hazel handle.
Answer: Tradition British besom brooms are made from birch or gorse heads and hazel handles
Answer: besom brooms are idea for outdoor sweeping; they are perfect for sweeping leaves from both grass and gravel.
Answer: Yes, you can buy besom brooms in the UK in fact we make and sell besom brooms right here at Three Copse Woodland Products, you can find them here
Answer: a traditional witches broom is in fact a besom broom
Answer: Yes, over the years we have made custom brooms for a wide range of uses, including motorhomes and handfasting ceremony’s, we have also made brooms for stage and screen.
Answer: like witches harry potter and the other students at Hogwarts ride Besom brooms.
Answer: Yes all of our besom brooms are hand made from cutting the birch and hazel to making the heads.
Our handmade traditional leather goods have become an important part of our identity. Like all of our heritage crafts, we combine time-honoured skills with carefully chosen modern techniques to create practical, hard-wearing products built to last.
Every piece is made with quality and usability in mind, whether it’s intended for everyday use in the workshop, woodland, or field. As Kester often says at shows: “If I wouldn’t be happy to use it myself, it doesn’t leave the workshop.”
Answer: Yes, all of our leather goods are hand made in our dedicated workshop; we cut straight from the tanned hide and craft all items by hand.
Answer: We us a range of full grain leathers depending on the product, each leather is specifically picked for the product, so for our belts we us an English bridle butt for its strength and durability, for tool sheaths we will use shoulder leather for its flexibility.
Answer: Where possible we aim to use English leather but this can be a challenge as there are very few tanneries left here in the UK, all of our leathers come from trusted finishing houses here in the uk so we know that the leather is of the utmost quality and from ethical sources.
Answer: Yes, because we handmake to order in our dedicated leather work shop custom orders are welcome, we make a range of standard pattern leather axe loops and tool sheaths which can be found on our shop site.
Answer: As woodland workers ourselves we know the importance of quality tool sheaths and pouches. We make a range of products for woodland workers from billhook pouches, to knife and tool sheaths and can custom make most items. You can find our standard range on our shop
Answer: Yes, we proudly handmake all of our products in house, in our workshops in Hampshire, our woodland product are made in our woodland in Clanfield, while our leather goods are made in our dedicated leather work shop in Fareham.
Answer: yes, you can join us in our dedicated leather workshop in Fareham for 1-to-1 sessions on belt making. NB Due the location of the workshop disabled access is not possible but we can offer an alternative location.
With more than 20 years spent working in the woods, alongside a lifetime immersed in traditional heritage crafts, we have built up a wealth of practical knowledge and experience. From coppicing and charcoal burning to leatherwork and woodland skills, these crafts have shaped both our work and our way of life.
We believe the best way to keep these traditions alive is to share them, passing on the skills, techniques, and understanding we have gained over the years. Here you’ll find answers to some of the most common questions about our courses, what to expect, and the skills you can learn with us.
For a more in-depth answer on each course and to find our full range of courses you can find our current woodland and leatherwork courses on our courses page.
Answer: Yes, we run charcoal courses to suit both beginners and those wanting to gain experience in different types of kilns and retorts. Your can find out more on our charcoal making course and book you place on one of our courses
Answer: Yes, you can, we run courses to suit both beginners and those with more experienced in green wood skills. You can find out more about the experience we offer on our pole lathe turning page as well as booking a place on a one-to-one course
Answer: We offer a basic coppicing course right here at our Threecopse woodland Products base at Clanfield. For more information visit and to book your place visit our introduction to coppicing page
Answer: Yes, we offer a basic woodland management course both here at threecopse HQ or if you have a woodland locally to Clanfield we can offer you a course in your own wood looking at way to improve both biodiversity and timber production. To find out more take a look at our basic woodland management page.
Answer: Yes, all our courses are beginner friendly, we aim to tailor our course to the person joining us to make it a truly unique experience
Answer: So that our course participants get the most out of it, we run the courses back to front so the first thing we do is empty both the oil barrel kiln and the small charcoal retort then we take participants through the loading and lighting procedures for both and how to manage a burn from start to finish.
Answer: No, we always aim to teach from the ground up, so no previous experience is needed on any of our courses
yes, we aim to carter for all ages. Some of our more physical course may require some adaptation but with notice this can be catered for. While we try and make access for all possible this has to be tempered with the natural state of the woodland so it may not be ideal for manual wheelchairs or mobility scooters. We can arrange disable accessible course space for our leather work courses by prior arrangement.
Answer: Yes, although those under 18 require an adult to attend for insurance and safeguarding purposes
Answer: While we try to carry on as much as possible sadly sometimes rain and wind do stop play for safety reasons, because our woodland causes are run in the great outdoors the weather can affect how and if we are able to run, gale force winds and trees are not a good combination, if we have to postpone a course we will try and give as much notice as possible and arrange an alternative date.
Answer: Yes, we provide all tools and materials for our courses although if you have you own tools you are welcome to bring them along.
Answer: Yes, we regularly send out gift vouchers to participants where a relative wishes to give a gift. Please use our contact us page to ask for more details.0
Answer: yes, generally park course attendees in an area just of the road as access to our work and training area is by 4x4 only.
For our leather work course over road parking is available
Answer: yes, we encourage our participants to take photo’s and share the love on social media, the only time this may change is if there are safeguarding issues with under 18’s present.
Whether you are looking to learn coppicing, charcoal burning, pole lathe turning, leatherwork, or woodland archaeology, our courses are designed to give practical hands-on experience in a real working environment.
Browse our latest courses or get in touch if you have any questions.
Book coursesIf you have a question that is not covered on this page please don’t hesitate to contact us and we will try to answer your question.