|
The woods
The Earl of Dudley, who owned the woods used to sell some of the trees.
Every so often, around spring time somebody used to come and buy the oak
and beech trees in the woods. When the trees had been cut down we used
to take the bags and barrels up to the woods and collect the wood
chippings that were left behind. I don’t know if aunt paid for them of
if he paid her to take them away. We had some smashing fires out of it.
They only used to take the trunk away for furniture making. They left
all of the branches and we had the lot. Night after night after school I
would have to cut the branches up. My cousin used to fetch the heavy
ones, taking two horses down. He had a big barn and he used to do a lot
of sawing up in there. He had a lad to help him on a Saturday. He had a
long saw with a handle on each end and the very thick pieces of wood
were sawn up with one person on each side.
|
