The Isle of Wight Coppice Group will be demonstrating skills, answering questions and selling traditional bean poles, pea sticks and plant supports at Jubilee Garden Centre, Branstone, today (Saturday) and tomorrow.

Coppicing is an ancient way of managing woodland where trees are felled at their base and allowed to regrow to provide a sustainable supply of timber.

Through the 18th and 19th centuries coppiced woodlands provided firewood, charcoal for the smelting of iron, wooden hoops for gunpowder barrels, bark for the tanning industry, fencing for agriculture, pegs for thatching and bundles of brushwood, used as fenders, in the dockyards.

However, by the mid-20th century coppicing was in rapid decline and many coppice woods were replanted with conifers or simply neglected.

The Isle of Wight Coppice Group has now been formed by local woodland workers to promote the sustainable management of Island coppice woodlands and woodland skills.

Graham Hardy, chair of the group said: “Coppicing keeps trees healthy and flourishing, stimulating growth to increase the life of the tree and it is good for our woodland wildlife, such as red squirrels, dormice and Bechstein’s bats and flowers, such as bluebells and wood anemone.”

In a welcome turn, the family-run Jubilee Garden Centre has now thrown its weight behind the group by becoming the first retailer to sell its products, including hazel bean poles, flower canes and pea sticks.

The Isle of Wight Coppice Group is supported by Down to the Coast.