Oxfordshire Woodland Group

The Oxfordshire Woodland Group is part of the @coopuk Local Community Fund. To find out more about our project and choose to support us, click here: membership.coop.co.uk/causes/99800

OWG has a ladies team dedicated to learning and developing their woodland management, green woodworking and timber building skills. Cathrin is hosting an exhibition in Oxford between 13 - 18 July and invites interested persons to attend same. See :- gender-project.sylva.org.uk/open-call-take

The Ali-stair was mocked up to establish how this could be fitted to reach the upper barn floor. The ladder is a bit short to fix from the lower barn floor and gets in the way of the workbench and movement of the sawmill. We will try remounting it on the upper ground floor.

"Ali's" stair has now been delivered to the cruck barn and is ready for trial fitting and making any adjustments required. A big thank you to Alistair !

Often overlooked is the importance of correct stacking, stickering and weather protection of planks that will require seasoning for years. The precision required to undertake this important work could probably best be served by persons of a neuro diverse nature (autism / ADHD).

We recently put one of our volunteer ladies through chainsaw training & kitted her out with PPE including chainsaw boots, trousers, gloves, braces & hardhat with visor. She passed and can now help cutting our logs and extracting same to the sawmill. A big thank you Coop !

The Oxfordshire Woodland Group is part of the @coopuk Local Community Fund. To find out more about our project and choose to support us, click here: membership.coop.co.uk/causes/99800

Something is biting the heads off the rabbits in the woodland and then leaving the body ? This one was found on the woodland track but another similar headless young rabbit has been found inside the cruck barn. It must be fast - what is doing this ?

Unfortunately the sheep fence guard has not proved effective in preventing predator damage to the sweet chestnut saplings. The bite marks appear to exhibit sharp cuts made by squirrel / rabbit / hare / deer ?

By May 2023 the larch saplings were 52" tall (above pot surface level) and had flushed out from all buds except the leading tip bud which was expanding ready to start putting on height during the 2023 growing season. They will be grown in pots until well above browse height.

J Jayashankar (OWG Ladies team) visited the shed in May 2026 to record the shed's current status and make observations on its timber conversion, framing practices and current use. Regrettably some vandalism was observed (crayon on main posts).

In 2013 Henry Russell and Barbara Czoch designed and built a cruck timber-framed woodland craft shed at Harcourt Arboretum, Oxon for Oxford University. Now that 13 years have passed we can now see how the shed has toned down and blended into the surrounding environment.

A very large long man made rabbitt warren seen in a Bucks woodland that was used in medieval times to hunt for rabbits using ferrets, netting and small dogs. The warren has recently been cleared of trees and is showing signs of still being active in places.

After 2 days of sawmill maintainence we put Cat through her paces to square up a knotty European Larch log taken from 82ft up the tree (log 6 above). This produced a good 8ft long timber wall stud ready to have any waney edge bark removed by the draw knife (squeezing the log).

The 141ft E. Larch log was bucked and extracted to the cruck barn using girl power muscle, hand winch, fence post rollers & levers plus good team working . The logs will be converted to form 2 long sills (17') + 3 cross sills (12') for the new bodgers / timber drying shed.

A 117ft [35.5m] Douglas Fir [pd 1959] was felled in preparation for making a new timber drying / bodgers shed. The tree got hung up between twin upper stems of a western red cedar and took a lot of effort to eventually free a clean straight log to be converted on our sawmill.

The barn has been examined further. The peg tiled roof has been replaced with a metal roof (split lath removed). The frame is made from elm and is in good condition. Water leaks have required replacement of some timbers (using oak). The barn was built 1759 & is 7.02M wide.

Intrepid OWG building explorers Helen Shears and Cathrin Poppensieker have brought this 5 bay threshing barn near Thame, Oxon to our attention. It features cranked inner principals and possibly dates to 1793 based on a post inscription made by RS / LW.

A local Berks / Bucks / Oxon type of timber-framed roof features a cranked inner principal. It is likely that these are produced using the swept butts of coppice grown trees. The OWG would appreciate receiving pics of simlar roofs to assist with our building research purposes.

For further discussion on the layout and carpentry of this kind of cross frame please check out :- oxfordshirewoodlandgroup.co.uk/forum/?minglef…

Here is another cranked inner principal barn near Slough, Bucks. Note that the ogee cross braces are not original - see the tie beam empty underside mortices.

Aspiring lady timber-frame carpenters might be interested to learn that we host a ladies (only) day at the woodland on Fridays / Saturdays in order for persons of that persuasion to feel more comfortable hopefully in a safe learning environment.

Jahnavi has produced a draft design for a Timber Drying / Seasoning shed and bodgers shop. The design adds a bay to an existing 20 year old square rule frame. This project is ideal for those wanting to learn how to timber frame in spring / summer 2026.

The vice has now been final fitted to the bench worktop with ash jaws fitted to the metal jaws to prevent damage to sharp tools. A 1.5" thickness patch was added to the bench underside to ensure that the metal jaws are lower than the bench worktop.

A benefactor provided a work bench vice and this was fitted by The Oxfordshire Woodland Group's lady woodland & workshop craft volunteers - Helen Shears and Cat Poppenseiker. Now the woodland community can use this to attach the Mens Shed [Drinkiq] nameplate. Great job !

OWG has been awarded a "Shoulder to Shoulder" grant by Mens Sheds and DRINKIQ ( drinkiq.com/en-gb ) to produce a work bench for community use in our cruck barn. OWG Fellow Cora Firth has produced a design and timber list used to resaw seasoned E. Larch to make the bench.