2022 Project Summary - One Ash — Andover Trees United

One Ash was one of four big projects we completed this year. Part of Six Trees & Six Flowers with a focus on sustainable forestry, it ran over two and a half years and consisted of three parts - meet the tree, witness its felling, and follow the journey of the timber - before culminating in a special exhibition in July 2022 at Andover’s Chapel Arts Studios.

The aim of the One Ash project was to give local schoolchildren a greater understanding of sustainable woodland management and the role of trees as a renewable resource, and to encourage a greater connection with them - particularly ash trees, which are disappearing due to Ash Dieback disease. It was prompted by children attending our annual Schools’ Planting Fortnight expressing concern about trees being cut down, showing a general lack of understanding about sustainable woodland management. Inspiration for the project came from the Sylva Foundation’s One Oak project, and the book The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees by Robert Penn.

An 80-year-old ash tree in the early stages of ash dieback on the Englefield Estate near Reading was chosen, and in autumn 2019 pupils from Andover CofE Primary, Appleshaw St Peter’s CofE Primary, Vernham Dean Gillums CofE Primary, and Harrow Way Community School visited the tree to connect with it as a living organism. The Estate’s forestry team taught the children about woodlands, the habitats within them, tree diseases, and sustainable forestry.

130 pupils from the four schools and their teachers then returned on 13th February 2020 to witness the tree being felled, along with some of the crafters who would be using the timber, and ATU volunteers. Many of the young people found it to be an emotional experience and left messages of thanks with the tree before it was felled. Some of the woodworkers set up demonstrations to show the children traditional skills and help them understand how timber can be used for a wide variety of products; the first item made onsite from the tree, within an hour of its felling, was a wooden clothes peg. The children also planted 100 oak saplings to replace the one mature ash (replacement with ash saplings was not permitted due to restrictions around Ash Dieback), learning how renewable materials can be sustainably sourced if replaced and increased. Thank you very much to Richard Benyon and the Englefield Estate’s forestry team, who were an essential part of these first aspects of the One Ash project.

Around 30% of the timber from the One Ash was left on the forest floor as an important deadwood resource for a wide range of species and to eventually decompose. The remaining 70% was sorted and distributed to 31 artists and woodworkers in the summer following the first national Covid-19 lockdown; thank you to the Englefield Estate, Trinley Estate, and Frenches Farm for storing the timber during those months. Unfortunately, the pandemic meant that the planned visits to workshops for the children to see products being made were not able to go ahead, but the crafters supplied ATU with journal updates and photos which were uploaded to the website, so the children could still follow the journey of the tree’s timber (please see the links at the end of this article).

Two years later, in July 2022 the products made from the tree’s timber were brought together for the One Ash: An Anthology exhibition, held in partnership with Chapel Arts Studios (CAS). The wide range of products created included bowls, cups, spatulas, rakes, a gate hurdle, tool handles, chairs, stools, candlesticks, oars, picture frames, prints, sculptural pieces, and more. Appleshaw and Harrow Way schools visited and were introduced to the exhibition by the Creative Director of CAS, Dave Dixon, and Chris Palmer, a woodworker whose work was on display. Chris explained how he had created his pieces, and the CAS team demonstrated how a cross-section of the tree’s trunk could be used to make prints such as those on display, which the young people then tried out for themselves, taking the small mementos away with them. The exhibition was also open to the public.

Thanks to all involved, the One Ash project was a success and achieved its aims. It combined education on nature and the environment with sustainable forestry, traditional skills, and art. Children who visited and got to know the living tree in late 2019 as Year 4s were able to see the wood of that tree reunited as many different useful and beautiful items in the exhibition as Year 6s. They learned that cutting down trees is not always a bad thing and the reasons why it is sometimes necessary, the importance of working in a sustainable way, and to regard trees and the gifts they give us with respect and gratitude.

A list of contributing crafters and artists can be found here.

The crafters’ Journals, including photos and videos as well as written entries, can be seen here.

More photos can be seen here.