Guisborough Forest Festival

Martin has become very interested in forest skills in the most general sense. He was keen to visit this forest event near Guisborough which is about halfway between Whitby and Teesside.

I must say it was very well organised taking place at the forest centre; clearly an all year round centre, with an immense number of stalls and exhibits. Some stalls were demonstrating forest crafts, others selling craft items and yet others representing a wide variety of organisations. The festival organisation started straight away with a good park and ride operation from a car park on the outskirts of the town: and all free.

There were fields set aside near the event for anyone going direct to park and these seemed rather crowded. The regular car park was set aside for disabled folk.

The  skills shown are always impressive at these events. Several had pole lathes set up and turning all kinds of things. We watched one who literally started with a length of debarked branch and produced a turned table leg in minutes. All the while he was conducting a conversation. There was also one who sort of cheated with an electric lathe turning door knobs.

For a forest festival there did seem to be quite a lot of ceramics. One stall where we spent quite a lot of time claimed Raku ceramic processes. I still don’t understand what the difference was from standard pottery although I was assured it was much faster. Annette and Ellen chose pieces to paint on glaze which were then fired in about an hour ready to collect. The potters had butane gas fired cubic kilns; about a half  a cubic metre capacity I would guess.. The interiors gave off a fierce glow as the lids were left permanently ajar.

More forest orientated were demonstrations of hurdle making and basket making. The baskets appeared to be larger than usual and with a special name which I forget.

A blacksmith was both demonstrating and selling various tools such as pokers and companion sets. I’m afraid I blanched at the prices.

Martin is taking over a small piece of woodland owned by a friend near Scarborough. He had been with this friend on a forestry skills course. He was pleased to quietly boast that he lit a fire by the old fashioned method of a spark lighting tinder and then building through sticks  and through to logs. They are clearing an area to set out a camp and have already spent a weekend there. Apparently the kids took in turn sleeping in a hammock while a tent provides other accommodation.

The woodland owner is apparently a former potter who had a successful business before winding down and recently retiring after ill health. We were introduced to him as Keith and wife Jane. Apparently Keith spends a lot of time in his wood and Martin feels that he is glad to have company sometimes as well as passing on some of his craft skills to the kids. Apparently he soon said he could replicate the pottery work in Martin’s den. Certainly all the gear in use seemed portable in principle.

At present although the den area is habitable it required a large stump to be removed by a combination of digging and winching.  From what Martin said this was going to be the site of their fire pit.

The festival showed the traditional way of logging with a single log towed by a shire horse. I understand from TV documentaries that while logging equipment is very sophisticated this is still the best method on difficult terrain.

Although the festival had many food and drink stalls we had a picnic. There were spare picnic benches so clearly this wasn’t the popular option.