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Another record year – 2022 was a record year in so many ways, from record high temperatures to a record number of new Prime Ministers and sadly, the loss of our Queen.
The records kept coming for us at Three Copse as well.
After 2020 we thought that the record of 1493 bags in a year up from 580 was going to stand for a while. 2021 had seen us miss that total by around 90 bags so we didn’t have great hopes.
Well, we started off at a run with orders coming in in January – although we had done a small burn in January 2021, we had to fire up one of the Exeter retorts to cover the demand.
As seems to be the way February was quiet but March found us lighting up again, sadly it also saw John and Chris go down with COVID but we still managed 2 burns.
From then on, we were at it constantly. This is where the first record fell: of the 12 months in 2022, we fired in 10 of them.
We also ran a full week’s charcoal course covering both the ring kiln and the charcoal retort. As you can hear from the footage this was during the hottest part of the year which was interesting.
One thing to note is that although many area had wild fires our woodland being predominately broadleaved is at far lower risk than say a pine woodland, add to that the beech canopy and the risk lowers even further.
If you would like to learn more about our charcoal courses take a look at our courses page
Our second record was the final total number of bags made and sold of 1509 – a record we hope to beat this year 😉
Another record we are not planning to repeat again is the number of times we had to damp the charcoal down due to spontaneous ignition.
This usually happens because the temperature within the retort is too high when opened.
Obviously, with the air temperature outside the retort at nearly 40°c, getting the internal temperature below 25°c is an interesting task. Sadly on several occasions we failed and had to deal with the resulting fire – thankfully no damage was done, other than a few frayed nerves.
One of our last charcoal burns of 2022 back in October, our last was infact on the 2nd of November. while it is not uncommon to still be burning in September we have rarely if ever burned this late into the year.
Listen to Kester to find out more
“But where can you buy this wonderful black gold?” I hear you cry, dear reader (read in a voice not unlike David Jason).
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© Three Copse Woodland Products 2002 – present
Postal Address:
Wesnet Services Ltd
289 London Road
Horndean
Waterlooville
Hants
PO8 0JE
Office hours 09.00 to 18.00 Monday to Friday.
Phone: (023) 92595147
