2025/26 Season Preparation and update.
Heartwood on air with Swad Style Magazine
Summer Get-Together
Don't forget we are holding a Summer Get-Together for all members and their families on Sunday, July 6th at The Hub from 10.30am.
We’ll be serving hot food from 12pm to 2pmish. After that, feel free to stick around to chat, make crafts, or simply relax. You’re also welcome to bring your own food if you prefer! The kettle is always on at The Hub.
Let us know if you are attending by booking on through the normal way, so we can cater on the day.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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2025/26 Season Preparation and update.
The operations team have completed. Site surveys of the woodlands we intend working in this coming winter. Here is a summary: -
- Foxley Wood. We will continue to work our way through the woodland, working in several compartments to provide the separation for working groups. The extraction will remain a challenge as the areas we will be working in are on a gradient, but we believe we have plans to accommodate this.
- Edwards Wood. Next season we will complete the final compartment which also includes some of the woodland adjacent to the Hub.
- Donisthorpe Woodland Park. We will be moving onto the area we started towards the end of last season. This runs adjacent to the canal and is a little closer to the car park for the collection of cars etc.
- Pick Triangle. We have had a couple of false starts here due to restricted parking, wet rides and the distance to the work area. We have agreed a compartment closer to the access and are working on using parking close by to avoid cars having to go on site.
- Foremark Reservoir. We have agreed continuation of the coppice work in the area we worked last season.
The woodlands we will be working next season are mixed. We have explained previously that we cannot pick and choose what type of woodland we work, so there will be hardwood and conifer again. Boot loads can be mixed and it’s the luck of the draw what type of timber we all get. The management of bays and car loading has lots of variables for the loadmaster to manage, but overall, everyone gets a fair share of the day’s timber, so please understand that we work with several landowners who have various woodland types - we want to be able to say “yes” to whatever their next priority may be.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Royal Forestry Society Visit
The National Forest Company will be entertaining visitors from the RFS on the 9th June. They will be visiting a local woodland with the NFC team in the morning, then coming over to the Hub. We’ve been asked to host the team for lunch (they will bring their own), then we will be demonstrating the charcoal making process and taking a short walk through Edwards Wood to demonstrate the work we have carried over the past 3 seasons. The event is planned between 13.00 – 15.00. We need a few members to help, if available you can book on the normal way. We would need to be there around midday to set up.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Radio Leicester awards
We have been nominated in the “Green” Category of the Radio Leicester “Making a Difference” awards. What’s even better is that we have successfully made it through to the finals!
BBC Radio Leicester is hosting a special awards ceremony at the Curve Theatre in Leicester on Monday 1st September, the start time will be 7pm with arrivals from 6pm. There will be a welcome drink and canapes. It’s at this event Radio Leicester will be announcing the overall winner for each category. We have been offered a limited number of tickets, so if you would like to attend to represent the group please drop me an email and if we have too many, we will draw names from a hat.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Heartwood on air with Swad Style Magazine
I was invited along to the weekly lunchtime show on Radio Burton a couple of weeks ago to talk to Ingrid van der Weide, who is the editor of Swadstyle Magazine, about Heartwood’s story. If you want to listen to the interview it can be found on this link.
https://www.mixcloud.com/BurtonRadio/swadstyle-show-190525/
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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The Hub Update
During the off-season months we will be running “Time out Tuesday” sessions every week. These will be more informal, so won’t be on the booking system. There is always lots to do and having a regular day of the week should help anyone interested to plan. If you would like to come along let us know and we can add you to the TOITW Whatsapp group where these sessions are discussed and planned.
Charcoal Update - With the completion of the build of the second Dragon, we now have a step change in our ability to produce charcoal. This time last year we only had one of the original retorts operational due to the second requiring repair. That meant the time taken to run a single retort only produced around 3 large sacks of charcoal. At present we have both original retorts working well and two new Dragons. With the ability to complete 3-4 barrels in each of the Dragons, we can potentially produce between 12 and 14 sacks per burn session. This does mean we get through far more timber for conversion, but it also means a reduced need for charcoal burn sessions. Thank you to everyone involved in sourcing materials and building the two Dragons.
Chris Adams, Kevin Banton, Dave Barker | Hub Team
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