The old varieties of straw grown in the Chilterns were ideal for plaiting with their hollow stem and thin wall. When damped the straws bent easily without breaking.
Our village lies on a small plateau in the beautiful beech wooded Chilterns; whichever way one approaches the village a hill has to be climbed, and until the times of motorised transport very few houses were built, thus making a very small close knit community...The whole of this area was once covered by thick forests, which were run over with thieves and vagabonds...
Andy Dean, one of our Woodlanders volunteers, has found all kinds of treasures in his private archives, including this account of bodgers’ lives and work written by his grandmother, Alice Dean who became the family historian. Alice starts by describing watching her father-in-law, Richard Dean, working his pole lathe.
In the corner of an outhouse would be a copper. The washing was passed through a mangle, and on wet days, wet washing would hang everywhere around the cottage. The copper was also used to boil puddings, such as the local favourite, bacon badger.
On a Saturday night, he and his father would walk to Spring Coppice, Speen, where the cobbler would instruct him to stand on a piece of leather. The cobbler would then draw around his foot with a pencil, allowing a little extra room for growth. The following Saturday night they returned to the cobbler to collect the new pair of boots.
