In the winter, they coppice year-old withies, or sticks, to the ground (in the spring, the willow will sprout again from the stump).
|
|
Woven withies have been used in the creation of the large outdoor sculpture "Willow Man", located near Bridgwater in England.
|
|
As with several other willows, the shoots, called withies, are often used in basketry. The wood is used in making cricket bats.
|
|
The Trust is continuing the tradition by planting more osiers. An Osier bed is where historically willows were planted and coppiced to produce withies which were used for basket making, fish-traps, and other purposes. The willow species salix viminalis was typically grown for this purpose. Willow rods (cuttings) would be planted, which root easily in moist ground, and the growth of the willow withies would be cut every one or two years.
|
|
At high tide the tops of a line of withies stuck in the mud on one or both sides of a channel will show above water to indicate where the deeper water lies. Note the images of international navigation-chart symbols for withies (port and starboard). NChart-Symbol INT Withy Port NChart- Symbol INT Withy Starboard Places such as Wythenshawe and Withy Grove (both in Manchester) take their names from the willow woods and groves that grew there in earlier times. The Somerset Levels remain the only area in the UK growing basket willow commercially.
|
|
Sources dispute the origin of the name Auchnagatt, claiming either "field of the wild cats" (Gaelic achadh na' cat)Scottish land-names; their origin and meaning (Herbert Maxwell, 1894) or "field of withies" (willows), in reference to the currachs or wickerwork creels traditionally produced in the area.
|
|
The wood is tough, strong, and light in weight, but has minimal resistance to decay. The stems (withies) from coppiced and pollarded plants are used for basket-making. Charcoal made from the wood was important for gunpowder manufacture. The bark tannin was used in the past for tanning leather.
|
|
A bender tent is a simple shelter. A bender is made using flexible branches or withies, such as those of hazel or willow. These are lodged in the ground, then bent and woven together to form a strong dome-shape. The dome is then covered using any tarpaulin available.
|
|
BSBI Handbook No. 4. . The term is also sometimes used to describe any type of flexible rod used in rural crafts such as hazel or ash. Withies traditionally serve to mark minor tidal channels in UK harbours and estuaries. In many places they remain in use and are often marked on navigation charts.
|
|
The Willows and Wetlands Visitor Centre is situated at Stoke St Gregory, on the Somerset Levels, north east of Taunton, England. Based on a working farm, growing and processing willow, the centre offers tours of over of withies, willow yards and basket workshops and explains the place of willow in the history of the Levels.
|
|
The kakap jeram's hull is planked and built with frames, made by meranti (dipterocarp) wood. It has carved figurehead and ornamented sternpost. A washstrake made of bamboo splits sewn together with bamboo withies, and held in position by lashings. A heavy beam is fitted forward and used for winding the anchor cable and bitting it.
|
|
Yeates Incline was built as an addition to the main line to serve Withies Croft, Independent, and Inmosthay Quarries. For this incline four bridges were constructed, all of which are now Grade II Listed. The traffic on the railway began to decline with the introduction of traction engines and motor vehicles. During World War I, the stone industry temporarily ceased.
|
|
The plant is a potential biomass source for biofuel energy generation. In the Russian honey industry, the plant is used as a nectar source for honeybees. ;Basket weaving The shoots (withies) are extensively used for basketmaking. It is one of the most important willows for this purpose after Salix viminalis, with several selected cultivars including: 'Black Maul', 'Grizette', 'Mottled Spaniards', 'Sarda', and 'Yellow Dutch'.
|
|
Part of the wages paid to fishermen came in the form of fish. Another local industry, the manufacture of fishing pots from locally grown Withies or willow strands, highlighted part of the sustainability of the fishing industry. Each fisherman made his own pots every year, both in the cove and in small buildings in the village before the season began. That skill is now limited to a few fishermen only.
|
|
In his ideal vineyard, vines were planted two paces apart and fastened with willow withies to chestnut stakes about the height of a man. He also describes some of the wines of Roman provinces, noting the potential of wines from Spain and the Bordeaux region. Additionally, Columella lauds the quality of wines made from the ancient grape varieties Balisca and Biturica, believed by ampelographers to be ancestral to the Cabernet family.
|
|
County historian John Hutchins (1698–1773) recorded that fishing was the main industry in the village, and 18th-century militia ballot lists reveal that husbandry was also particularly important. Ropemaking, basketry and the manufacture of cotton stockings were other notable trades within the village, with records indicating hemp and withies being grown in the area. In the early 19th century, Abbotsbury's population grew steadily, from about 800 in 1801 to nearly 1,100 sixty years later.
|
|
Formerly known as Blakedown Pool, it was later named Swan Pool. More dams were built higher up to form Springbrook Pool (now Ladies Pool), and Wheatmill Pool, eventually called Forge Pool when the agricultural mill there was redeveloped for industrial use. Even after the mills and forges were demolished, workers came from Lancashire and Cumberland for two months each year to cut the willows surrounding them for withies and clogs until the 1930s.
|
|
There is also an example of a mudhorse which is a wooden sledge is propelled across the mudflats to collect fish from nets. The museum specialises in the shallow draft Flatner, a form of vessel once prevalent in Bridgwater Bay and adjacent coastal areas. Flatners are small double-ended boats with no keel. Withy Boats and Turf Boats, which were between and long, were used on the Somerset Levels to carry peat and withies to market.
|
|
This is one of the reasons why Portland stone is so favoured as a monumental and architectural stone. Dr Geoff Townson conducted three years doctoral research on the Portlandian, being the first to describe the patch-reef facies and Dorset-wide sedimentation details. Dr Ian West of the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences at Southampton University completed a detailed geological survey of Withies Croft Quarry before the Portland Beds were quarried by Albion Stone plc.
|
|
Some branches from specific trees have their own names, such as osiers and withes or withies, which come from willows. Often trees have certain words which, in English, are naturally collocated, such as holly and mistletoe, which usually employ the phrase "sprig of" (as in, a "sprig of mistletoe"). Similarly, the branch of a cherry tree is generally referred to as a "cherry branch", while other such formations (i.e., "acacia branch" or "orange branch") carry no such alliance.
|
|
Along with other related willows, the flexible twigs (called withies) are commonly used in basketry, giving rise to its alternative common name of "basket willow". In the Chilean village of Chimbarongo, it is used to fashion their renowned baskets. Another increasing use is in energy forestry, effluent treatment, in wastewater gardens, and in cadmium phytoremediation for water purification. Salix viminalis is a known hyperaccumulator of cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, petroleum hydrocarbons, organic solvents, MTBE, TCE and byproducts, selenium, silver, uranium, and zinc,Phytoremediation.
|
|
The limestone is quarried for building stone and the other rocks for use in road construction and as a concrete aggregate. Sand, gravel and peat are extracted in other parts of the county. The Somerset Levels between the ancient towns of Glastonbury and Wells have traditionally been used for growing withies, flexible, strong willow stems, used for many centuries for making furniture, baskets and fencing. Willow has been cut, processed and used on the Levels since humans moved into the area.
|
|
563 Coppiced hardwoods were used extensively in carriage and shipbuilding, and they are still sometimes grown for making wooden buildings and furniture. Diagram illustrating the coppicing cycle over a 7- to 20-year period Withies for wicker-work are grown in coppices of various willow species, principally osier. In France, sweet chestnut trees are coppiced for use as canes and bâtons for the martial art Canne de combat (also known as Bâton français). Some Eucalyptus species are coppiced in a number of countries.
|
|
Willow has been cut and used on the Levels since humans moved into the area. Fragments of willow basket were found near the Glastonbury Lake Village, and it was also used in the construction of several Iron Age causeways. The willow was harvested using a traditional method of coppicing, where a tree would be cut back to the main stem. New shoots of willow, called "withies", would grow out of the trunk and these would be cut periodically for use.
|
|
The museum shows suggestions, but the boat could easily be little more than has been removed from the ground, or perhaps many metres longer. The width of the boat is significant, being around 2 metres wide it is much wider than dugout canoes of the time and can easily seat two people next to each other. It is wider than the Ferriby boats, for example. The boat was constructed of oak planks, stitched together with yew withies and also fixed together with wooden wedges.
|
|
Willow was harvested using traditional methods of pollarding, where a tree would be cut back to the main trunk. New shoots of willow, called "withies", would grow out of the trunk and these would be cut periodically for use. In 1970 a few dozen of the traditional willow baskets were made and installed by the fishermen at Goldcliff. To make a putcher by hand, a low bench was used approximately high and square into which 9 holes were made, in a circle in diameter.
|
|
Radiocarbon dating revealed that the craft dates from approximately 1600 BC and is the oldest known ocean-going boat. The hull was of half oak logs and side panels also of oak that were stitched on with yew withies. Both the straight grained oak and yew bindings are now extinct in England. A reconstruction in 1996 proved that a crew of between four and sixteen paddlers could have easily propelled the boat during Force 4 winds at upwards of four knots to a maximum of .
|
|
Draper's Osier Bed Stream is a small stream in southern England, in the county of Berkshire. It is formed at a weir on a section of the River Kennet running alongside the Kennet and Avon Canal, and travels east for a while, before merging with the Kennet upstream of the head of the Holy Brook stream. An Osier bed is where historically willows were planted and coppiced to produce withies which were used for basket making, fish-traps, and other purposes. The willow species salix viminalis was typically grown for this purpose.
|
|
The Spanish verdugado, from which "farthingale" derives, was a hoop skirt originally stiffened with esparto grass; later designs in the temperate climate zone were stiffened with osiers (willow withies), rope, or (from about 1580) whalebone. The name verdugado comes from the Spanish verdugo ("green wood", or the more modern meaning of "executioner"). The earliest sources indicate that Joan of Portugal started to use verdugados with hoops in Spain. Joan had provoked much criticism as she allegedly wore dresses that displayed too much décolletage, and her wanton behaviour was considered scandalous.
|
|
Willow Man is a large outdoor sculpture by Serena de la Hey. It is in a field to the West of the M5 motorway, near Bridgwater in Somerset, South West England, near to the Bristol to Exeter railway line and south of junction 23 of the motorway. It stands , with a arm span, and is made of black maul willow withies woven over a 3-tonne steel frame. Willow Man was commissioned by South West Arts, for the Year of the Artist, and was unveiled in September 2000.
|
|
The withies which were used to make the pots and panniers were grown in willow plats (areas of pollarded willow) in the area.The architectural heritage of Kingsbridge & District; Then & How; Petter, Helen Mary and Chitty, Anthony; Published by Dartington Amenity Research Trust for South Hams Society; pre 1977 Many ships have been lost in the area over the centuries.McDonald K, (2002) (Third Edition) Shipwrecks of the South Hams, Wreckwalker Books, Thurlestone The Salcombe Cannon Wreck of the 1630s is a notable site. A large cast iron Swedish gun dating to 1690–1720 has been found in the estuary.
|
|
In the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and some parts of Hungary, a tradition of spanking or whipping is carried out on Easter Monday. In the morning, men spank women with a special handmade whip called a pomlázka (in Czech) or korbáč (in Slovak); in eastern regions of former Czechoslovakia Moravia and Slovakia they also pour cold water on them. The pomlázka/korbáč consists of eight, 12 or even 24 withies (willow rods), is usually from half a metre to two meters long and decorated with coloured ribbons at the end. The spanking may be painful, but it's not intended to cause suffering.
|
|
Some of humans' earliest manufactured items may have been made from willow. A fishing net made from willow dates back to 8300 BC.The palaeoenvironment of the Antrea Net Find The Department of Geography, University of Helsinki Basic crafts, such as baskets, fish traps, wattle fences and wattle and daub house walls, were often woven from osiers or withies (rod-like willow shoots, often grown in coppices). One of the forms of Welsh coracle boat traditionally uses willow in the framework. Thin or split willow rods can be woven into wicker, which also has a long history.
|
|
Depending on the use of the cut material, the length of time between cutting will vary from one year for tree hay or withies, to five years or more for larger timber. Sometimes, only some of the regrown stems may be cut in a season – this is thought to reduce the chances of death of the tree when recutting long-neglected pollards. Pollarding was preferred over coppicing in wood-pastures and other grazed areas, because animals would browse the regrowth from coppice stools. Historically, the right to pollard or "lop" was often granted to local people for fuel on common land or in royal forests; this was part of the right of Estover.
|
|
Czech Pomlázka (handmade whip) A Pomlázka in use; by Marie Gardavská (1871-1937) In the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and some parts of Hungary, the Easter Whip is used as part of a tradition of spanking or whipping on Easter Monday. In the morning, men spank women with a special handmade whip or switch called pomlázka or karabáč (in Czech) or korbáč (in Slovak) or siba or korbács (in Hungarian). The pomlázka consists of three, four, eight, twelve or even twenty-four withies (willow rods), is usually from half a meter to two meters long and decorated with coloured ribbons at the end. If men arrive at women's houses after 12 o'clock, women throw a bucket of cold water on them.
|
|
Pergolas are more permanent architectural features than the green tunnels of late medieval and early Renaissance gardens, which were often formed of springy withies—easily replaced shoots of willow or hazel—bound together at the heads to form a series of arches, then loosely woven with long slats on which climbers were grown, to make a passage that was both cool and shaded and moderately dry in a shower. At the Medici villa, La Petraia, inner and outer curving segments of such green walks, the forerunners of pergolas, give structure to the pattern, which can be viewed from the long terrace above it. The hornbeams of the 180-meter-long Pitet's bower are from the 19th century and are included in Braives' classified property list, province of Liège, Belgium (1942).
|
|
His legend states he was a shepherd who had to care for his paralysed mother after his father's death. When they fell on hard times and were forced to beg from door to door, he built a one-wheeled cart or wheelbarrow (with a rope from the handles over his shoulders taking part of the weight) in which he moved her around with him. They set out east, towards the rising sun, from his home and, even though the rope broke, he improvised a new one from withies, deciding that when that rope broke he would accept it as a sign from God to stop at that place and build a church.Some haymakers who were watching laughed at him, but a heavy rainstorm ruined their hay and taught them a lesson.
|
|
A midwinter horn is about 1.3 m (4 ft) long, although they vary in size and are said to have become longer in modern times. They are made from slightly curved tree trunks of, for example, alder (said to be the traditional material), birch, or willow, which are cut in half lengthwise, hollowed out until the walls are about 1 cm (half an inch) thick, and then rejoined. The halves are either glued together, clamped at intervals with metal rings or automotive clamps, or, traditionally, bound with willow or bramble withies or split rushes, and traditionally the horn is dipped in water to seal cracks and then played wet; water is usually also poured down the instrument immediately before playing.Jeremy Montagu, "The Construction of the Midwinterhoorn", The Galpin Society Journal 28 (April 1975), 71–80, doi 10.2307/841572.
|
|