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© 2008 Tedwill
In 1963 I met a guy who also worked at Roehampton making legs. We got to chatting and I found out he was in scouting too and he had a special interest - forestry. He was doing the same as I was, going to work on service crews at scout campsites, in particular he went to one called Chalfont Heights in Buckinghamshire, there they had a forestry crew. Their past time was looking after the forest at the campsite of about 200 acres. He invited me along for a weekend and we met 8 other guys on the crew and after that weekend I was smitten. I learned all I could about forestry and trees, they even ran a forestry course so we got a chance at learning everything significant from seedlings to bonfires or wood usage.
The forestry crew had its own cabin, a single room that doubled as sleeping quarters and living quarters. There was a rigid timetable we followed each day form getting up, washing, breakfast, work, tea time, work, lunch, work until dark or 5 pm then relax and dinner. It was the same every day over the weekend. Work would involve tree management, that is to tend plantations previous crews had planted, felling wolf trees, (those that wood not make good selling timber) clearing new areas in the woods, planting seeds and seedlings and general wood tidying up. Along with rowing (as described in Scouting) and forestry I became super fit, I still could not run far but everything else was good.
We made a plan of action and decided what work we would do over the weekend. I enjoyed logging up and felling trees. The wolf trees I mentioned are trees that fork and dont have a long straight trunk, if it is bent or splits then it is no use for industry. The intention at the time was to sell off the good trees, the rest would be fire wood for the scouts at the campsite.
I continued working with the forestry crew until I joined the full time fire service in 1973. My interest in trees moved from practical to theoretical. I surveyed every tree in Kew Gardens with a view to creating a data base. That was before computers were available so I did it on file cards. The idea was to eventually start to 'fingerprint' each type of tree. A fingerprint is a genetic map of a living thing, you see them using it to identify criminals now, but in the 1970's it was very primative. After all, they had only discovered the genetic code even existed in 1953 (Crick and Watson), so it was a major task to obtain a fingerprint of living things. There was massive research by better experts than me worldwide and particularly at Kew. They compiled the data base, so it made all my effort pointless, but I enjoyed it immensly as I got out to see all the different types of trees. I even got scouts from my scout troop to go with me on a weekly basis to Kew to help because there are thousands of trees there. That of course was before the big gales in 1984 when hundreds of trees were destroyed.
The fire brigade and my family life took over any further effort and work with trees.