Written by Ryan Walsh, currently on his Year Out
After the first day all our imaginations were lit full of inspiration and anticipation. It was now time for us to greet the site and understand the setting of the weeks build.
Waking after an amazing sleep in contrast to the constant busy London Sound Hooke park is silent, no noise other that the rustle of the wind and the wildlife that it is home to. Following breakfast, the excited team jumped into the MiniVan and took off down the winding one lane highways towards what had been waiting for us.
Here the hedge rows feel like tunnels and occasionally opening up to a small stone village or view of the surrounding landscape. Just after crossing the Hooke river you arrive at the Kingcombe Nature Reserve our second home for this weeks build. As we arrive to the site we travel through the reserves garden and allotment area. Full of knitting and craft classes the reserve feels like a well loved homily and delicate place.
Arriving on the board walk you realise the ambition of the project and the standard of phase one. Its quite a long way back to the reserve along the set posts. The board walk leans over the river and inscribed into the timber is the names last years project. After an introduction into the site and pointers on the design of two elements which will be inserted into the board walk we head deep into the reserve with Sam the head of the reserve for a guided tour.
As soon as we step into the field we spot a buzzard sweeping from the perimeter trees low into the grasses.
This land is the only agricultural land in the county to avoided the effects of industrial farming and process of pesticides, ploughing of the land and felling / shaping of the land. The reason the buzzard was present is because the perimeter English oaks would normally be chopped down to allow tractors the reach the edges of the field instead this become perches for the buzzard to hang over its prey.
As we step through the narrow fields divided in long stretches traditionally for the sons of the family the overwhelming noise and sound of the grasses are incredibly loud, just as the constant sound of the city rumble in the background here the reserve has a constant hum of insects whilst an abundance of damsel flies fly into your face.
We reach a wide open field and the tops of the grasses are floating with hundreds of butterflies on a day where David Attenborough has made a news broadcast requesting the country to count its butterflies we would be here for years. A minor tweak and turn in temperature causes this and we had arrived precisely at this perfect point. As we stand low next to the Hooke, Sam introduces us to some of the delicate measures the reserve places into the land to help nurture and facilitate habitat such as slowing river flows, the effects of this visible from the root growth in the shallower areas. We walk up the hill and by this point the dryness and aridness of the recent weather is visible and felt, its midday and the sun is at its peak.
We travel down the hill and open a door and step through into the tall hedgerow into and ancient air-conditioned corridor. A cool calm secret retreat that leads us back to the reserve traditional used for trade and the transportation of cattle. The corridor is vaulted and arched with coppiced hazel trees. Old wiser on the outside and younger bendy ones forming the vaults on the inside. Sam explains the process of coppicing and rotation around the reserve throughout serval years providing timber and woodchip for the reserve. After lending an impromptu helping hand to the local gardeners and travelling back along the hedgerow tunnels we travelled to Alice Blogg’s workshop!
Nestled into a Stone Barn surrounded by stacks of raw future chairs Alice’s workshop sat comfortably and overflowing with timber inviting us inside. Alice gave us a tour of the shop and the processes of sourcing, measuring and cutting a tree all the way through to the finishing detail of her exquisite furniture. Understanding the quantities of natural timer and seeing a chair inside a pile of raw drying hardwood was a concept I was completely unfamiliar with and was really interested to see how this process was worked through. Alice shared her most beloved tools and chisels with us and ran through her most intricate of crafts such as the linen a folded wardrobe which smelt as strong as perfume. One particular theme was the resourcefulness of tooling and Jigs, adapted and made to create a certain form along the fold. It was incredible inspiring to see the workshop and gave us a real push to start designing our own pieces.
After lunch we began designing theses elements for the boardwalk in two teams. We immediately took use of the workshops facilities and atmosphere, it feels amazing to design in such a space and after less than two hours we presented our Ideas to the team and ran through the concepts with the client. A lot overlapped and we had plenty of ideas to work on, refine and complete in the given time. We imagined a secret storage step that would use the handrails of the walk to release a step on the lower level of the ground to gives access and discovery to the children that will visit the reserve and for some have there first experience with nature.
After the session we prepared to rest in the quiet peaceful hook park until Monday mornings descent into site and the real work to begin whilst enjoying the times and friends we would make in the week ahead of us.