Why? Because one must not wear gloves when using "edge" tools - hatchets, billhooks, axes - for fear that they are more likely to slip and decapitate one's neighbouring worker! So I often keep the left-hand glove on to hold things and drop the other one if I am working with a tool in my right hand --and then move on elsewhere! So, if anyone wants a fairly worn left glove to make up a pair, you are welcome to see me at any time...

Talking of tools and billhooks in particular, I met a neighbour who collects them, as I do. He has also come by an interesting history about the way they were made, written by Alan Bayfield who used to live in Eastbourne. Billhooks were made by edge-tool smiths, mostly in Sussex and Kent for which they were used in the extensive hedges and coppiced woods of the two counties.

These skilled blacksmiths in wrought iron worked in the middle of the 19th Century, and supplied customers within a radius of about 15 miles from their furnaces. I saw drawings of named toolmakers from Heathfield, Ticehurst , Blackboys, Wadhurst and all villages beyond. They were designed with much care for the tools' balance to allow for long periods of work without tiring and with less risk of breakage. Some of my own billhooks were crafted by makers from Devon (2), one in Horsham, while two are indecipherable and two more are of modern manufacture.

Sorry. I get carried away by these things when I ought to be updating you on the work on the reserve. Work on the trees has now finished for the season due to the onset of the nesting season. We had a good winter and made a lot of progress on thinning the big plantation which looks a mess, but Nature gradually covers it all over with bracken and we are soon none the wiser. In the last few weeks we have had up to nine keen volunteers each week.

So I am having to think about more leadership and less chat which is hard for a person now steeped in ways of idle retirement.

It is coming up to the best time to see the reserve when the spring flowers are out. To find us, take the Lewes road in Cross-in-Hand, fork left at the little Methodist church and carry on for about half-a-mile before looking left for a drive and gate with a small green notice. There is a car park at the end of the drive.

John Hall © 2005