Coppicing and wattle fencing

Chestnut Class have been practising some very ancient skills in our Wildlife Garden during Forest School sessions.
When trees like willow grow, they produce very straight branches which can be easily bent and woven. If cut, they will grow again, producing many more shoots, which can be left until they are thick enough to use. This is the craft of “coppicing” timber – cutting without killing the tree, to encourage new growth. It has been used since ancient times.
Willow can be used to make fences, by weaving the branches in and out of stakes driven into the ground. Long before wire fences were possible, farmers used fences like this – “wattle” fencing – to keep their animals under control.
Rowan Class have been planting a group of rowan (or “mountain ash”) trees in our Garden. They will make a lovely copse of trees when they mature, but they need a lot of protection, as they are very thin young twigs at the moment. To protect them, we have made a wattle fence around them.
The children in Chestnut Class learned how to use a pruning saw to cut suitable willow branches for this job, and how to transport the willow rods safely to the fencing site. Saws can be very dangerous if not used correctly, so the tool was introduced – as always in Forest School – with a “tool talk”, explaining the safe way to handle and use it. They then learned how to weave the willow to make a very secure and attractive fence. It involved a few hours of hard work, but the children picked up the skills very quickly. They were very proud of the fence they had built – and rightly so!
Around the rowan trees, we have planted seeds of wild meadow flowers to encourage bees to visit the Garden. Our new fence will protect the flowers and the young trees, until they are old enough to survive.