When the woods were an industrial landscape

Friends of Oakley Wood had organised a day of demonstrations of historic rural industries as part of a horse logging scheme it set up in conjunction with Warwick District Council, which owns the land.

Horse logging is a traditional way of managing woodland without the impact of modern vehicles, and around 200 people saw demonstrations of crafts such as spoon carving, pole lathe turning and charcoal making as well as horse shoeing by a farrier.

Mrs Barlow said: “Many of them were amazed to see the crafts in their proper place in the wood because all these places were attached to the wood. One hundred years ago the spoonmaker would have had a hut in the wood, and charcoal burners would have lived in well-managed woodland.”