Bentley Wood Fair 2008

Tracy spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Bentley Wood Fair, as she was working on the stalls for SWOG and Woodnet. I went along for the Friday and Saturday as well to help out, and also have a look around (and buy some tools).

There were the usual displays of machinery, such as people sawmilling:
Plumpton college demonstrating various things, including a large log splitter
A Unimog
and outside the woodland area, stacks of shiny new kit:
I think my favourite bit is in the woods though:
There was a heavy horse team there again
and the Surrey Sussex Coppice Group had their usual collection of stalls in the far corner
There were some round wood structures:
and various ancient settlements: one of which had a clay-built bread oven:
This hut had a central fire, which was obvious by the smoke seeping through the roof. Can't have been a very pleasant place to live...
Out in the large field there was a lot of art and craft stuff. Particularly impressive were these remains of tree stumps that had been cleaned and carved entirely by hand. Apparently this one had taken three years of work:
However, one of the highlights for us was a bench made from the chestnut poles from our own wood, produced by J Martin Rustic Garden Furniture:
Mike