Seasons’ Greetings to all!

Roundwood Timber Framing

Building Naturally using Local Resources

Ben Law

In the opening to Ben Law’s new book he describes the journey he has made in self-built dwellings: from bender- the simplest, almost stone-age dwelling made by pushing both ends of long hazel poles into the ground, making a domed space which is covered in a tarpaulin; evolving next into a yurt, a more sophisticated structure using a hazel or willow lattice as walls, with straight roof-poles slotting into holes around the crown or “wheel” at the top of the roof; to finally a roundwood timber framed house made famous in the Grand Designs program, and in his earlier book, “The Woodland House”.

This is a journey I have followed in a similar fashion myself, although my roundwood timber reciprocal frame hut is barely a hovel compared to Ben’s woodland palace, it was in fact partly inspired by him: I met him briefly some 20 years ago at the then young Sustainability Centre in Hampshire, where he was building a reciprocal frame, the first time I had come across the concept.

Since then Ben has resurrected the place of the small-scale coppice worker in Britain and developed out of the woods a a method of timber frame construction using roundwood poles that he feels fulfills the natural builders’ need for creativity and organic shapes in building with the regulators stringent requirements:

Hand selecting trees with form and character that have their own intrinsic beauty and follow their own lines, rather than those that have been forced upon them by saw and right-angle, allows freedom of movement in a building whilst keeping within the parameters of the drawings on the table. The building itself has life, curves and natural form, the frames often looking like they are trees growing out of the floorboards. Each new building improves on the last and each joint is developed and refined. I feel roundwood timber framing has reached its evolution where the joints are advanced, the timbers tried and tested and a range of buildings including sheds, barns, dwellings, educational spaces and industrial buildings have been constructed and passed the vigorous analysis of the construction engineers and building inspectors.

Using roundwood poles has several practical advantages: they do not require milling and planing the way sawn dimensioned timber does, and thus have a lower embodied energy; and they are structurally stronger than sawn timber of the same dimensions because the natural flow of the fibres in the tree remain intact.

The method of building lends something to Scandanavian and North American log-cabin style construction, but requires far less poles and is best combined with infills of natural materials such as straw-bale or cob.

Roundwood construction requires a close relationship with the different tree species, as well as an understanding of coppice management, which are both covered in the book. The third chapter gives details of 10 tree species suitable for roundwood framing; Ben lives in a sweet chestnut coppice, and rates this species very highly as a coppice tree and for this purpose; for those less fortunate to have access to such a resource- sweet chestnut is rare in Ireland for example- soft-wood poles such as larch or Douglas Fir will probably be more readily available. Of particular interest to start growing is Black Locust Robinia pseudoacacia which is a very durable tree that coppices well, currently uncommon in the British Isles.

There follows chapters on Tools for Roundwood Timber Framing; Construction, which describes in detail all the joints used; beyond the Frame- looking at shingles for the roofs, and wall and floor options; and finally a chapter with case studies of Ben’s roundwood timber builds, including the recent Lodsworth Larder, community owned village shop.

Roundwood timber framing requires a degree of specialist tools and skills, and while the process is described well in the book, only an experienced builder with good practical skills already would be able to go out and start building with these methods just from the book. Ben does also give courses and offers apprenticeships. There is also an accompanying DVD.

The star of this book is the photos. They are absolutely stunning: of trees, woods and coppice, tools and buildings. All mouth-watering, and worth buying the book for those alone. You might not be in a position to go out and start roundwood timber framing yourself immediately, but you will certainly be inspired to dream and who knows one day those dreams could become a reality.

Roundwood Timber Framing will find an essential place in the Green Builders’ library, and provides a wonderful way of linking together trees, woods, humans and their dwellings.

A Hawthorn hedge was the obvious choice for the road frontage, and I planted it with a view to laying the hedge once it was big enough. Eight years later and that day has now come and over the last few weeks with a few volunteers to help the hedge is now laid and looks great!

Laid hedges are not common in West Cork; nor have I seen many elsewhere in Ireland, though I hear there are good examples in Kilkenny. Many hedges are thin with many gaps, some ageing trees; hedges are commonly flayed from a machine every year or two, which often results in gaps developing underneath; then they are not so good as a stockproof barrier.

The BTCV Handbook on Hedging states:

Hedge laying developed as a way of making a stockproof barrier out of readily available material, that is, living woodland plants. Until the invention of wire, hedges were the only practical and cost-effective way for a farmer to enclose his stock in areas where walling stone was not to hand. Hedge laying involves partially cutting through the living stems near ground level, and bending them over as ‘pleachers’. They should lie close, like plates in a rack. Depending on the style of laying, the pleachers are anchored by stakes and binding to form a type of living fence. This ‘fence’ has several purposes. * It forms an immediate barrier to stock or people. * Depending on the style, it provides protection from browsing animals for the young shoots, which grow up from the base. * It improves the micro-climate by slowing the wind and raising the air humidity, so helping the growth of the young shoots. * Even in the period immediately following laying, hedge laying retains sufficient of the pleachers to maintain some habitat for other organisms, including birds, small mammals and invertebrates. * Some new shoots also sprout along the pleachers, thickening the hedge for the first few years after laying, until most of the pleachers eventually die. By this time the new shoots from the base have grown up to form a thick hedge.

I have little experience myself, but attended a couple of courses a few years ago, as did Pete who came to give me a hand.

Pete takes the axe to a pleacher…

…and lays it over into the hedge

As the pleachers are laid in place hazel stakes are driven in approx every 2ft. These hold the hedge together and gives it strength while the new shoots grow into place.

Hazel weavers are woven on top of the hedge between the stakes to make a neat finish.

Many thanks to Pete, Martin, Raymond for their help and Goska for the photos!

I am off to attend a Forest Gardening course with Martin Crawford at the Agroforestry Research Trust in Totnes, Devon, next weekend, so I thought it would be appropriate to tell you how some of my own fruit and nut trees are doing, seven years after moving to Derryduff.

Of greatest excitement, I have a walnut!

A single, solitary specimen, but a walnut nevertheless- on a grafted tree of the cultivar “Broadview”. It is only planted here two years and just 3ft high, but the fact that it has a nut at all so early in its life is hugely encouraging and shows that it is possible in this climate.

As a timber tree, walnuts and related varieties grow like the clappers in the moist warm Irish climate, and should be considered for that reason alone.

In fact, the most spectacular tree i have on the property is a Heartnut (Japanese Walnut) given me about 10 years ago as a nut by my sister. I need another heartnut of a different cultivar to get nuts, which I will plant this year.

Of more tested viability, I have a few varieties of cobnuts, which are related to the native hazel but grown for their larger nuts. Some of mine are beginning to produce a handful of nuts each this year. For more information on cobs, check out the Kentish Cobnut Association and download their pruning booklet.

More as a curiosity than as a serious crop, I planted a couple of Bladdernuts- Staphylea pinnata-

soon after I moved here and they started producing their odd-shaped nuts after the second year. The nuts are tiny- only about 1/2 cm across (the ART claim up to 1cm) and enclosed in odd sacs that are unavoidably reminiscent of a scrotum!

I also have a few cultivars of sweet chestnut, purchased from Woodkerne Nurseries

of Skibbereen, still young, but with tremendous potential as a staple tree crop for Ireland. I also planted a small stand of the common sweet chestnut for coppice- the timber is as durable as oak heartwood and grows faster here, ideal for outside furniture, fencing stakes etc, these will be coppiced in another few years. This year for the first time they flowered and may have set some small nuts, but you need the larger cultivars for good nut production. For nuts, they also need a lot of space- 8-10 meters is recommended by Martin Crawford, so not for the small garden.

As far as fruit is concerned, I have a few apples and pears, but I cannot neglect to mention the ever-reliable blackcurrant crop which has yielded 17 ibs already from 10 bushes- the birds have probably had as many- and have i guess another 10 lbs still ripening. Many special thanks to Ciara for making jam! I also have Japanese Wineberries just coming ripe now, one of my favourites, not massively productive but easy to grow and very sweet.

That’s it for now, Im off to the Irish Green Gathering and then to the UK so reports from these will come when I have time.