New Woodfuel Boiler!

The Read-Out

Smiles seeing the machine start first-time!

On the 25th of April our woodfuel boiler kicked into action, and the office has never been warmer! Fed on a lean diet of chipped wood waste, the boiler is currently providing heat to three large buildings incuding the main office block and our Orchard Barn. The intention is to heat more buildings in the future. This is a terrific addition to Nicholsons, lowering our carbon emmissions, saving on the use of oil, and complementing the photovoltaic panels installed last year.

Cleft chestnut post and rail fencing

The Nicholsons Forestry team have recently completed erecting 250m of cleft chestnut post and rail fencing for a client in Warwickshire, under the instruction of garden designer James Alexander-Sinclair.  The fence is to separate the wider garden of the property from adjoining grazing land, whilst maintaining views from the house to a newly constructed lake and across the Warwickshire countryside beyond.

The posts and rails were sourced from near Midhurst in West Sussex - the chestnut was felled during the winter and processed into the morticed posts and rails 'in the wood'.  The team worked hard and completed the work in just over a week, including attaching rabbit netting along the entire length.

We hope to back on site in the autumn to plant some more specimen trees between the house and the fence to create a 'parkland setting' for the house.

Nicholsons at Chelsea

Nicholsons began building a garden for David Harber at Chelsea this week, on Main Avenue alongside some of the larger show gardens. Progress is being hampered by the rain but the paving is going down and the garden is taking shape. The plants are looking more lush each day and will be going down to Chelsea next week. We are planting the trees and hedges early next week and our clients David Harber will be installing their sculptures from Wednesday onwards. Let’s hope for better weather next week at least until the pergola has a roof on!

harvesting on a steep slope

We are currently harvesting about 800 tonnes of coniferous  timber on a very steep slope  near Chipping Norton. The woodland has been affected by red band needle blight and  once it has been cleared , the site will be replanted with broadleaves. Our men are wearing crampons to keep themselves upright!

special harvesting equipment has been brought in to deal with the conditions. In effect this is a type of 'highlead ' system based on a 360 excavator and winch system, more commonly found on Wesh hillsides.