Finn's Country

"A wood that pays is a wood that stays." That's a favourite saying of Darren Hammerton from Hampshire - and he's spent much of his life proving that it's true.

Darren began his working life as a metal worker in Southampton docks. But the call of the woods was too strong.

He now runs his own woodland management company called Out of The Woods, based at the East Meon Sustainability Centre. He not only manages woods but creates a variety of objects from the timber he harvests in them - hazel hurdles, roof shingles, benches.

Darren's arrival at work

Ten years ago Darren was approached by Swanmore Primary School to look at a bluebell wood that the school had been left in a will.
 
Captain Phillimore's Wood is about eight acres and, like many ancient woods in the south, had been suffering from years of neglect.
 

Until one hundred years ago or so, many woods were kept alive by craftsmen. Their regime of careful harvesting created prime conditions for plant and wildlife.

The advent of plastic killed all that. Objects that had been made from wood were now made from plastic - and were much cheaper. The woodsmen disappeared and their woods became dark and overgrown.

Darren Hammerton

Darren Hammerton is part of a new breed bringing back the old woodsman tradition - and making a profit out of it. His first act at Captain Phillimore's Wood was to make an inventory of the natural life that was surviving.

He then cleared the old scrub and built a deer fence to protect the flowers and new hazel trees he planted. After five years, the hazel rods will be ready for harvesting, coppicing as it's known.

Visit by a local school

Once cut, new shoots magically appear from the stumps. The rods are split to weave into hurdle fences.

There is one shadow hanging over this new breed of woodsman.

Garden centres have begun importing cheaper hurdles from Eastern Europe.
 

English Hurdle

These are made with unsplit rods, held together with nails and are usually less durable.

The competition could threaten the viability of the English woodland revival.

Darren's work at Captain Phillimore's Wood is a long term project but the fruits are already there to see.

There's a host of wildflowers traditional to ancient woodlands.

Apart from bluebells, there's Solomon's Seal, Yellow Archangel and Pig Nut. Best of all, according to Darren, nightingales have returned to the woods.