BHMAT, along with the Coppice Association North West (CANW), manage Moss and Height Spring Wood (MAHS) in Bouth, South Cumbria.
Over the years our apprentices have been responsible for coppicing (in rotation or restoring) various coups of the wood. We run regular “Fun Days” where members come along and help out with various tasks (coppicing, charcoal making, fencing, oak bark peeling etc..).
The oak bark once stripped from the small diameter oaks in the coups goes off to the last remaining oak bark leather tannery in the UK, J&FJ Bakers. The Lake District has a long history of supplying oak bark to the tannery. One of our trustees, Tony Morgan, makes sturdy leather belts from the resulting leather and one of our graduates, Lorna Singleton, uses the leather for lids and straps on her basket bags.
Here are a couple of articles written about the woods. Click each to view in full-size.
Here’s another article written by Brian Crawley, former sponsor and CANW president. He and his wife Louise used to work these woods:
Management Plan
Location of Moss and Heights Spring Wood
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Go down the side road by the White Hart Inn at Bouth, keep left at the junction signposted Hay Bridge, go round a couple of corners till you see a gate with a byway sign next to it. This is the entrance to MAHS . We usually meet by the memorial bench about 400m into the wood.