August has been another busy month here at Three Copse. From bringing neglected coppice back into rotation and welcoming a new generation of coppice workers, to charcoal production, woodland history and a very wet weekend at the Stock Gaylard Oak Fair, there has been plenty going on.
As always, we’ve shared snippets of what we’ve been doing through our social media, but there is often more to the story than can fit into a reel or a photograph. So this month’s Woodland Diaries takes a closer look at some of those stories – and a few things that didn’t quite make it onto our feeds.
Here at #threecopsehq, we manage 64 acres of ancient woodland, much of which is at different stages of restoration.
When we first took on the woodland more than 20 years ago, much of the hazel coppice had been neglected for decades. Traditionally, coppice stools would have been cut on a regular 5–7 year rotation, providing poles and other useful woodland products. When that cycle stops, the woodland gradually changes.
As hazel grows without being cut, it becomes taller and denser, eventually forming a thick canopy. Other trees and shrubs can grow through it, creating an increasingly dark woodland.
In some of our unrestored coppice, very little sunlight reaches the woodland floor. This makes it difficult for many of the plants that thrive in traditionally managed coppice to survive.
That doesn’t mean a dark, mature woodland has no wildlife value. Mature trees, deadwood and shade-loving species are all important. The problem comes when large areas of coppice are left unmanaged for decades and we lose the variety of habitats that traditional coppice management creates.
Restoring neglected coppice isn’t simply about cutting everything down. We carefully bring different areas back into rotation, creating a mixture of coppice at different stages of growth.
When a coupe is cut, much more light reaches the woodland floor. The hazel stools respond with vigorous new growth, while plants that have been suppressed by years of shade can once again flourish.
As the hazel regrows, the conditions gradually change. The bright, open environment of a newly cut coupe becomes increasingly shaded as the canopy develops, before eventually being cut again.
It is this constantly changing structure that makes coppice so valuable for wildlife.
A recently cut coupe provides sunny, open conditions, while young and older coppice provide increasing levels of shade and different forms of cover. Add mature trees, woodland edges, rides and deadwood, and you have a woodland made up of a whole range of habitats.
This variety can benefit a huge range of wildlife. Butterflies and insects can take advantage of sunny, flower-rich areas, woodland plants benefit from increased light, while birds and mammals make use of the different food, shelter and nesting opportunities.
We’re not trying to create one perfect habitat. We’re creating a woodland with lots of different habitats at different stages.
We’ve been bringing areas of our woodland back into coppice rotation for more than 20 years, and there is still plenty to do. Different coupes are at different stages, and that’s exactly what we want.
The work we are doing today will benefit the woodland for generations to come. The hazel we cut will produce new growth, the changing habitats will support wildlife, and the skills needed to manage coppice can be passed on to the next generation.
Coppicing is an ancient form of woodland management, but it still has an important role to play in modern conservation. By working with the woodland’s natural cycles, we can produce useful timber while helping to maintain the rich diversity of habitats that makes our ancient woodland so special.
To find out more about our woodland management follow the link button below
It wouldn’t be Britain without mentioning the weather somewhere along the line. For those outside the UK, summer 2026 has been one of the hottest on record, with wildfires breaking out across the country.
With conditions so dry and the risk of fire so high, we’ve had to take extra care when producing our charcoal. Fire safety is always a priority, but during periods of extreme weather it becomes even more important.
Producing charcoal involves working with very high temperatures and, inevitably, fire. That means carefully considering conditions before starting a burn, keeping a close eye on the weather and making sure we have the necessary precautions in place.
As woodland managers, we’re very aware that the fuel we work with can become a serious fire risk in dry conditions. Producing charcoal responsibly isn’t just about making a good product — it’s about making sure we do it safely and responsibly within the woodland we manage.
Part of our approach is the use of our Exeter charcoal retort, which helps reduce the risk of fire spreading by containing the burn within the retort itself rather than having a fire directly on the ground. This gives us much greater control over the burning process and is particularly important when conditions are hot and dry.
There is only one thing rarer than a coppice worker — and that is a coppice worker under 25. At just 19, David is one of that increasingly rare breed, and he is now starting his coppice journey here at #threecopsehq.
David isn’t new to woodland work, but this is his first opportunity to take responsibility for managing an area of coppice and to put his own skills and ideas into practice.
Over the last 23 years, we have worked to bring around 20 acres of our hazel coppice back into some form of rotational management. It has been a long process, and the results are now starting to provide a range of useful woodland products once again.
Some areas are being managed on longer rotations, providing timber suitable for charcoal production, while other areas are now producing hazel of a size suitable for more traditional coppice products. This is where David comes in.
He will be working the shorter-rotation coppice, producing a wide range of products including hedging stakes and binders, pea and bean sticks, hurdle material and a whole host of other, perhaps less usual, coppice products.
For us, it is about more than simply cutting hazel. Coppicing is a traditional woodland management system that has shaped our woodlands for centuries, and passing those skills on to the next generation is an important part of keeping that tradition alive.
David is at the beginning of that journey, and it will be interesting to see how his skills develop and what products he produces from the woodland over the coming seasons.
You can follow David’s journey through his social media pages as he learns, experiments and develops his own approach to working the coppice.
You wouldn’t necessarily expect to find much social history hidden amongst the trees, but our woodland has a few surprises.
Some stories are written in books. Others are written into the landscape itself — and sometimes, quite literally, into the trees.
One of the features of the woodland here at #threecopsehq is the number of large, mature beech trees, many of which have been pollarded over the years.
We believe that most of these trees were planted as avenues across the wood between about 1851 and 1871. How do we know this? The tithe map of 1851 shows hazel coppice where the beech avenues now are, and hazel won’t grow well under beech trees. The 1871 Ordnance Survey map shows the beech avenues, so they must have been large enough to be noticeable by that stage. We think they may have been planted by the farmer, who rented that land, getting delusions of grandeur or wanting to get across the wood to his fields the other side from the farm without going round the wood.
But the trees themselves still carry clues.
Across the woodland we have found a number of names and dates carved into the bark of these mature beeches. We certainly wouldn’t encourage anyone to carve into a living tree, but these marks do provide a fascinating glimpse into a more recent chapter of the woodland’s history.
One particular beech, situated close to the footpath running along the edge of the woodland, is especially interesting. Dates carved into its bark suggest that someone returned to the same tree on several occasions over a period of many years. From what we can make out, the dates appear to run from around 1930 through to 1956.
Who made those marks, and why they returned to this particular tree, is something we simply don’t know.
Perhaps it was a local person who regularly walked the footpath. Perhaps it was someone who worked in the woodland, or a young person marking the passing of time. Whatever the reason, the tree has quietly preserved a small piece of someone’s story for nearly a century.
This is particularly interesting to us because, although we know quite a lot about the older history of the woodland through historic maps, archaeology and the landscape itself, there is much less information about what happened here during the period from around 1900 onwards.
That is a part of the woodland’s history we’d like to understand better.
As we continue managing and restoring the woodland, we’re not just looking at the trees and the wildlife they support today. We’re also trying to piece together the stories of the people who came before us and the part this woodland played in their lives.
Sometimes, you don’t need an old document or an archaeological discovery to uncover a piece of history.
Sometimes, you just need to look closely at the trees.
This year marked the 20th Stock Gaylard Oak Fair, although, because of Covid, it actually started 21 years ago.
It has to be said that the Oak Fair is one of our favourite shows of the year. It is always a great opportunity to catch up with old friends, meet new people and, of course, talk to lots of people who share our passion for woodland, traditional crafts and sustainable products.
Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t particularly kind to us this year. Yes, there we go talking about the weather again! But after the summer we’ve had, I suppose the weather had to break at some point. Despite the rain, we still had a really good weekend, meeting some great people, talking about what we do and, perhaps most importantly, helping a few people fulfil a long-held dream of owning their very own traditional besom broom.
Over the years we have demonstrated several different crafts at Stock Gaylard, including pole-lathe turning, charcoal burning and, more recently, broom squiring – the traditional craft of making besom brooms.
As you would expect, this year we took our entire broom-squire’s camp with us to Dorset – lock, stock and both shave horses! For the weekend, our stall became a small working broom workshop, allowing us to demonstrate some of the traditional skills involved in making a besom broom.
In the accompanying video, we show part of the process of making traditional besom broom heads. It is a craft with a surprisingly long history, but sadly it is now becoming increasingly rare in the UK. The Heritage Crafts Association currently lists broom making as a critically endangered craft, with only around 7–15 people earning a significant proportion of their income from its production. (heritage crafts association data).
That is one of the reasons we enjoy demonstrating broom making at shows like the Oak Fair. It isn’t just about selling a broom; it is also about showing people how they are made, explaining where the materials come from and helping to keep the knowledge and skills of the craft alive.
One of the things that visitors don’t always see is everything that happens before the show even begins.
Going to a show isn’t simply a case of loading the van on Friday morning and heading off. There is all the work involved in getting products made and ready, making sure we have enough stock, packing the tools and equipment needed for demonstrations, preparing the stall and, in the case of the Oak Fair, making sure we have everything we need for a few days away from home.
And then, when the show is over, it all has to happen in reverse.
The stall has to come down, everything has to be packed away, the equipment loaded back into the van and brought home, and then the unpacking, cleaning, restocking and preparation for the next show begins.
It is a lot of work behind the scenes, but weekends like the Oak Fair remind us why we do it. Meeting people, sharing traditional woodland skills and seeing someone walk away with a handmade broom that they have wanted for years makes all the preparation worthwhile.
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