Cutting stakes

by Ian Bushell

The morning’s task was to cut, prepare and store enough hazel stakes to provide the structure for dead hedges to protect the banks and streams on either side of the footbridges into Studley Close and Village Green. 

We chose the hazel coppice running down from the picnic area towards the stream (X marks the spot on the map). The stools were well grown and in need of coppicing. We needed to cut out robust stakes between 2 and 2.5 metres long, ideally with a bit of a point on them.

After nearly two hours of hard work, we had cut about thirty stakes, ready to be picked up when we go to stage 2 of this complicated task.