Hodgemoor Woods and Froghall
Hodgemoor Woods 1920 to 1950 as told to Valerie Crowther by her father Leslie William Edlin, farmer at Upper Bottom Farm, Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire
Hodgemoor Wood lay opposite to Maisie Cottage which was one of the worker’s cottages on Upper Bottom Farm. Leslie Edlin came to the farm as a child and then when he married, he moved to Hobbs Hole another of the farm cottages before moving to Maisie Cottage, situated on the edge of the farm boundary and facing the wood.
Maisie Cottage stood by itself when I was a child, but originally there had been two rows of cottages, one either side of the road, Kiln Cottage and the Pest Houses where victims of the infectious diseases such as scarlet fever and the plague, were sent to prevent the spread of the condition in the village. The whole hamlet was known as Froghall . Most of the cottages were two up and two down. The rows of cottages had been built by one of the large land owners in about 1900 for £50 each, as game keepers’ cottages, Kiln Cottage was the Keeper’s house and had views over the whole area. In about 1935, the Council ordered the rows to be pulled down as the ceilings, being only 6 foot high, were too low. And so they were all pulled down except Maisie Cottage and the Pest Houses which had been built in the sixteenth century and had a bit of history to them.
When the cottages were pulled down, Maisie Cottage was offered for sale for £25, but Leslie did not have the money to buy it, so it remained as one of the farm cottages.
Two of the cottages were tenanted by a father and son by the name of Slade. The son, Frank, bought one acre of the land just up the road for a woodyard. Eventually a very nice house was built on the site and given the name “Froghall”
In the 1930s, Leslie "purchased" wood by the acre to cut and sell as firewood to the local villagers. He delivered to the grand houses in Gerrards Cross. His wood was sought after as for some reason he could never understand, it burnt well and gave out a good heat. The wood he brought in for his own use did neither and quite often filled the cottage with smoke.
Hodgemoor Wood was a coppice wood. It only grew a few dwarf oak trees as the land was only suitable for Silver and Black Birch, Hornbeam and other trees. Mature trees were cut down about every ten years and few of them grew more than six inches in diameter.
On the corner near Maisie Cottage, grows a tall ash tree. Opposite in the wood there was a large shed where men worked on wet days. They made all kinds of products to sell. There were 12-15 men employed in the wood. In the summertime the woods were closed down for pheasant rearing and so the workers took to cherry picking on local farms. Gamekeepers kept everyone away from the woods. Some lived in wagons in the wood.
The wood products made were numerous, and some are listed here.
· The larger trees were cut down and split for logs
· Bagwood and small wood was sold on Saturdays for one shilling a bag
· Long poles with a v shape at one end were sold for clothes line props
· Straight branches were cut into bean poles and sold in bundles of twelve
· Pea sticks were sold in smaller bundles
· Bean sticks were longer branches and also bundled
· A few of the best straight trees were cut to make fencing stakes and sold by the hundred. Birch trees were not suitable for this as they rotted in the ground
· Fencing panels were made from hazel. The sticks were split and woven.
· Bessom brooms were made on wet days. There is quite and art to making them.
· Coops were made for chicken rearing
· Cages were made for fattening capons
· Sometimes the trees were suitable for pit props
· There was a continuous search for branches suitable for making walking sticks. The wood for this was usually hazel.
After World War two, those woodcraft workers who had left to go to war, did not return to take up their trade. Others were by then too old to continue with the work. Only charcoal burners continued to make a living from the woods.
On the west side of Hodgemoor there was beech wood adjoining the Magpies Inn where Bottrells Lane joined the Coleshill Road, Christmas trees were planted and a row of scots pines. They were all cut down in 1937 as was the the beech forest called Bircham’s Springs north of the Coleshill Road.. A large area of peat was left which caught fire and burned slowly for years. Quantities of ash were planted for farm use for stakes, poles and repair of carts.
Opposite Stockings Farm, which was owned by Mr Venesss from 1924, Lord Burnham planted 20 acres of gorse meant as cover for foxes and pheasants. Unfortunately the hunt dogs and horses couldn’t face up to the gorse to get through it and the whole lot had to be chopped down and burnt off.
In all the woods there were chalk pits. South of Maisie Cottage there was one and there was another facing the Magpies. There were more in Balla Wood, Rogers Wood, Days Wood, High Wood Bow Wood, The Forest Wood, and Bircham’s Springs Wood. In the 16th to 18th centuries, in the winter chalk was dug up and carted into the fields for calcium. The soils in the area were of glacial gravel and lacked calcium. The Chiltern Hills are covered with a layer of gravel. The chalk spread on the fields was broken down by the frosts and harrowed into the ground in the spring ready for the planting of the crops. Women and children would pick up all the flints from the soil (they called it stone picking) and the flints were used for road building, houses and barns. The Ivy House was a pub built from flints and the Brickhill Road had a flint foundation. The chalk pits were good for fossil hunting. On Upper Bottom Farm, there was a huge flint pile south of High Wood, left from previous centuries. One of the barns on the farm was made of flint and dated 1745. It eventually fell down due to misuse. The beams were used as a hoist and weakened the building..
The Forest Wood was also the site of a Roman encampment. It was the Romans who dug out the pond, fed by freshwater springs.
In spring, there were carpets of bluebells under the beeches and some woods had primroses. The banks alongside the roads had white and blue violets, and celandines.
Along the paths in Hodgemoor there grew heathers. In the hedgerows bordering the fields foxgloves grew in abundance. In wood clearings the lilac bay willow herb took over. Cowslips grew in hidden places and when found, their whereabouts was a closely guarded secret.
Hodgemoor Woods and the surrounding countryside was haven for wildlife. Rabbits, hare and pheasants were commonplace, as were stoats and weasels. Opposite Upper Bottom Farm, up on the hillside, there was a huge rabbit warren. In those days, rabbits were trapped using wire snares. Snares are now illegal. The woods had plenty of birdlife including jays, woodpeckers and owls. It was also home to the grass snake and adder or viper, which would come out in the spring and bathe in the sun on the ploughed fields. Later the woods filled with munchjack deer. Opposite Maisie Cottage, there were glis glis which would come in through the windows.
Leslie used to see an animal he could not identify. Dr David Brown, who worked at London Zoo, said “shoot one and I will take it to the zoo to identify it.” Well, one day when Leslie was cutting wheat, the animal ran out and was duly shot. It was identified as a pine marten, believed to be extinct except in Scotland. The zoo wanted to issue a summons against Leslie for killing it, but Dr Brown intervened as it proved there was a small colony of pine martens living in the Hodgemoor area.
Another animal to inflict damage was the polecat. Chickens were being killed in the night. No-one knew what animal it was and foxes and badgers got blamed. After about two years, a polecat (wild ferret) was eventually spotted and Leslie did mange to shoot the offenders. Badgers were plentiful in the area, including a sett at the end of the garden at Hobbs Hole. However, they were difficult to spot.
Until his death in May 2007 at the age of 89, Leslie lived with his wife Maude and daughter Pamela in Old Bar, New South Wales, Australia.
copyright V Crowther April 2006
Hodgemoor Wood lay opposite to Maisie Cottage which was one of the worker’s cottages on Upper Bottom Farm. Leslie Edlin came to the farm as a child and then when he married, he moved to Hobbs Hole another of the farm cottages before moving to Maisie Cottage, situated on the edge of the farm boundary and facing the wood.
Maisie Cottage stood by itself when I was a child, but originally there had been two rows of cottages, one either side of the road, Kiln Cottage and the Pest Houses where victims of the infectious diseases such as scarlet fever and the plague, were sent to prevent the spread of the condition in the village. The whole hamlet was known as Froghall . Most of the cottages were two up and two down. The rows of cottages had been built by one of the large land owners in about 1900 for £50 each, as game keepers’ cottages, Kiln Cottage was the Keeper’s house and had views over the whole area. In about 1935, the Council ordered the rows to be pulled down as the ceilings, being only 6 foot high, were too low. And so they were all pulled down except Maisie Cottage and the Pest Houses which had been built in the sixteenth century and had a bit of history to them.
When the cottages were pulled down, Maisie Cottage was offered for sale for £25, but Leslie did not have the money to buy it, so it remained as one of the farm cottages.
Two of the cottages were tenanted by a father and son by the name of Slade. The son, Frank, bought one acre of the land just up the road for a woodyard. Eventually a very nice house was built on the site and given the name “Froghall”
In the 1930s, Leslie "purchased" wood by the acre to cut and sell as firewood to the local villagers. He delivered to the grand houses in Gerrards Cross. His wood was sought after as for some reason he could never understand, it burnt well and gave out a good heat. The wood he brought in for his own use did neither and quite often filled the cottage with smoke.
Hodgemoor Wood was a coppice wood. It only grew a few dwarf oak trees as the land was only suitable for Silver and Black Birch, Hornbeam and other trees. Mature trees were cut down about every ten years and few of them grew more than six inches in diameter.
On the corner near Maisie Cottage, grows a tall ash tree. Opposite in the wood there was a large shed where men worked on wet days. They made all kinds of products to sell. There were 12-15 men employed in the wood. In the summertime the woods were closed down for pheasant rearing and so the workers took to cherry picking on local farms. Gamekeepers kept everyone away from the woods. Some lived in wagons in the wood.
The wood products made were numerous, and some are listed here.
· The larger trees were cut down and split for logs
· Bagwood and small wood was sold on Saturdays for one shilling a bag
· Long poles with a v shape at one end were sold for clothes line props
· Straight branches were cut into bean poles and sold in bundles of twelve
· Pea sticks were sold in smaller bundles
· Bean sticks were longer branches and also bundled
· A few of the best straight trees were cut to make fencing stakes and sold by the hundred. Birch trees were not suitable for this as they rotted in the ground
· Fencing panels were made from hazel. The sticks were split and woven.
· Bessom brooms were made on wet days. There is quite and art to making them.
· Coops were made for chicken rearing
· Cages were made for fattening capons
· Sometimes the trees were suitable for pit props
· There was a continuous search for branches suitable for making walking sticks. The wood for this was usually hazel.
After World War two, those woodcraft workers who had left to go to war, did not return to take up their trade. Others were by then too old to continue with the work. Only charcoal burners continued to make a living from the woods.
On the west side of Hodgemoor there was beech wood adjoining the Magpies Inn where Bottrells Lane joined the Coleshill Road, Christmas trees were planted and a row of scots pines. They were all cut down in 1937 as was the the beech forest called Bircham’s Springs north of the Coleshill Road.. A large area of peat was left which caught fire and burned slowly for years. Quantities of ash were planted for farm use for stakes, poles and repair of carts.
Opposite Stockings Farm, which was owned by Mr Venesss from 1924, Lord Burnham planted 20 acres of gorse meant as cover for foxes and pheasants. Unfortunately the hunt dogs and horses couldn’t face up to the gorse to get through it and the whole lot had to be chopped down and burnt off.
In all the woods there were chalk pits. South of Maisie Cottage there was one and there was another facing the Magpies. There were more in Balla Wood, Rogers Wood, Days Wood, High Wood Bow Wood, The Forest Wood, and Bircham’s Springs Wood. In the 16th to 18th centuries, in the winter chalk was dug up and carted into the fields for calcium. The soils in the area were of glacial gravel and lacked calcium. The Chiltern Hills are covered with a layer of gravel. The chalk spread on the fields was broken down by the frosts and harrowed into the ground in the spring ready for the planting of the crops. Women and children would pick up all the flints from the soil (they called it stone picking) and the flints were used for road building, houses and barns. The Ivy House was a pub built from flints and the Brickhill Road had a flint foundation. The chalk pits were good for fossil hunting. On Upper Bottom Farm, there was a huge flint pile south of High Wood, left from previous centuries. One of the barns on the farm was made of flint and dated 1745. It eventually fell down due to misuse. The beams were used as a hoist and weakened the building..
The Forest Wood was also the site of a Roman encampment. It was the Romans who dug out the pond, fed by freshwater springs.
In spring, there were carpets of bluebells under the beeches and some woods had primroses. The banks alongside the roads had white and blue violets, and celandines.
Along the paths in Hodgemoor there grew heathers. In the hedgerows bordering the fields foxgloves grew in abundance. In wood clearings the lilac bay willow herb took over. Cowslips grew in hidden places and when found, their whereabouts was a closely guarded secret.
Hodgemoor Woods and the surrounding countryside was haven for wildlife. Rabbits, hare and pheasants were commonplace, as were stoats and weasels. Opposite Upper Bottom Farm, up on the hillside, there was a huge rabbit warren. In those days, rabbits were trapped using wire snares. Snares are now illegal. The woods had plenty of birdlife including jays, woodpeckers and owls. It was also home to the grass snake and adder or viper, which would come out in the spring and bathe in the sun on the ploughed fields. Later the woods filled with munchjack deer. Opposite Maisie Cottage, there were glis glis which would come in through the windows.
Leslie used to see an animal he could not identify. Dr David Brown, who worked at London Zoo, said “shoot one and I will take it to the zoo to identify it.” Well, one day when Leslie was cutting wheat, the animal ran out and was duly shot. It was identified as a pine marten, believed to be extinct except in Scotland. The zoo wanted to issue a summons against Leslie for killing it, but Dr Brown intervened as it proved there was a small colony of pine martens living in the Hodgemoor area.
Another animal to inflict damage was the polecat. Chickens were being killed in the night. No-one knew what animal it was and foxes and badgers got blamed. After about two years, a polecat (wild ferret) was eventually spotted and Leslie did mange to shoot the offenders. Badgers were plentiful in the area, including a sett at the end of the garden at Hobbs Hole. However, they were difficult to spot.
Until his death in May 2007 at the age of 89, Leslie lived with his wife Maude and daughter Pamela in Old Bar, New South Wales, Australia.
copyright V Crowther April 2006
Labels: Memories of Times Gone By
posted by Valerie Crowther at 7:03 AM
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