OBJ Morris - 2025 Scrapbook

Coppicing at Lily Hill Park
18 January 2025

Morris sticks don't just grow on trees!

The first stage is a coppicing session to gather straight young hazel wood.   We select wood that is 35-39mm diameter and cut it to 75mm lengths, then dip the ends in diluted PVA.  This is then stored for a year or two to season it. This dries it evenly along its whole length.

After seasoning we hold a stick-making party to turn the seasoned wood into 60mm morris sticks.  Quite often we'll combine this with a rag-jacket-making party so everyone gets an opportunity to do something useful.

On this occasion, we coppiced at Lily Hill Park, with appropriate permission from the ranger team.

OBJ comprised: Christopher, Claire, Clare, Claudia, Colin, Joe, Mickie, Peter, Philip and Tony

Click the pictures to enlarge them


Theres was a lot of creeping about in the undergrowth to reach the bottom of the hazel growth

Followed by a fair bit of sawing, lopping, and trimming.

This left short  hazel "stools" that will produce new growth and be ready for coppicing in a few years time.


Then there was a bit of quality control, selecting out the sections that were the right thickness, straightness, etc

The bits we wanted were cut to 75mm lengths

The waste bits were neatly stacked to make hedgehog habitats etc.


The valiant team of coppicers

L-R: Christopher, Colin, Peter, Claire, Claudia, Joe, Mickie, Tony and Philip. Claire is holding the camera


We produced about 35 lengths of hazel wood in little more than an hour, plus some bits for use in allotments etc.

Here is the first batch of about 20 having their ends sealed with diluted PVA before being stored  for seasoning.