News

This November's Members meeting was all about Cobnuts, Gillian Jones, Chair of the Kent cobnut association and grower of Cobnuts, gave a very interesting and thought provoking talk to a big turnout group of members. A cobnut is a cultivated variety of hazelnut, just as a Cox is a cultivated variety of apple. Mankind has enjoyed wild hazelnuts from time immemorial, and cultivated hazelnuts, sometimes known as filberts, have been grown in gardens and orchards since at least the 16th century. Children played an early version of 'conkers' with hazelnuts; the game was called cobnut or cobblenut, and the winning [...]

A new Whatsapp initiative for coppice workers  How many times have you had an enquiry far too big for you to handle, or simply too busy to fulfill?Or needed coppice materials yourself to complete a job? We've wondered how NCFed could help in managing such orders for a while. So we are launching a new pilot scheme which we hope will do just that. We have created a WhatsApp Group called 'NCFed Coppice Merchant' where all members can share details of orders they can't fulfill on their own, or where you can send requests for materials you may need. But [...]

CALLING ALL COLLECTORS! PEOPLE’S SHOW 2020 at the Weald and Downland living museum I just spotted this call for help from the Weald and Downland living museum: Calling all collectors. As part of the Weald & Downland Living Museum’s 50th Anniversary we will be holding a ‘People’s Show’ from 13 February until 11 May 2020. At the Museum we have around 16,500 items in our collection dealing with rural life and building activities, but we also know that some of you have wonderful collections too and we want to see them. A People’s Show turns the spot-light on our visitors own collections [...]

The Woodland trust is asking for everyone's help to plant trees. The following is from their website: The Woodland Trust is calling on one million people to pledge to plant a tree to help us fight the climate emergency. We need to act now! This year, on 30 November the Woodland trust will hold a mass participation tree planting day with events across the country. Join us in The Big Climate Fightback. If you are unable to plant a tree as part of The Big Climate Fightback, you can still play your part. Simply pledge and make a donation to the [...]

Bob Hewitt is involved in helping make a new Sculpture at Warnham Nature reserve, Bob says: The sculpture is built at Warnham nature reserve as part of their information trail where we the group have our meetings, I was employed to erect the trail signs 11 in all, the sculpture was professionally designed and then built by the reserve volunteers under the supervision of the architect, it is made from cleft chestnut rails and bolted together The Tri Helix is to represent the cell structure of plants. Warnham Local Nature Reserve is a haven for wildlife just a 30-minute walk from Horsham [...]