Withy Harvest
In the early 1930s, an survey of the Somerset willow industry was carried out by the University of Bristol. They looked at the area between Langport, Kingsbury Episcopy, Burrowbridge and Knapp. The map above shows the extent of withy beds at the time, with each circle representing 5 acres (just over 2 hectares). It was based on the Ordnance Survey map, where the symbol for ‘osiers’ is seen over a large area in the map below.
In most parts of the temperate world, willow has almost always been cut in the dormant season, when leaves have fallen and the sap has retreated down the stem. Even in Roman times it was noted that rods cut in winter were straighter, stronger, and less prone to splitting. In Northern Europe, this also fitted in well with the agricultural seasons. The winter was seen as a time for hedging, ditching, and harvesting willow. Before mechanisation, cutting might be carried out be a whole family, but there were also individuals who became specialists. It is reputed that some of these men could cut from 30 to 60 bundles a day, depending not only on their skill, but the quality of the willow stools.
Charlie Langford Cutting Withies (by kind permission of Patrick Sutherland)
Regular winter cutting also renews the plant, producing straighter, finer rods in the following year. On the other hand some growers favoured leaving cutting until just before the sap starts rising again in the spring. The bark is then at its easiest to remove for producing white willow (that has not been steamed or boiled) for culinary items and nursery equipment. Where willow was harvested along the river bank, whole families would assemble and the would strip the withies as they were cut. The danger was, and still is, that cutting at a specific time always attracts the risk that weather and flooding conditions may render the cutting impossible, and a whole crop could be ruined. Even though most willow is now harvested mechanically, the grower is still at the mercy of the weather, and, with current climate change, is faced with an ever shorter window bewteen leaf fall and spring regrowth.
Jimmy Garland, Charlie Keirle, Den Clarke and Harold (Moocher) Hembrow
To get a feel of what harvesting was like for the workers, do follow this link and listen to Emrhys Coate’s account. Click HERE