Forestry Commission Centenary 2019

Origins

Introduction

Our exhibition celebrating the centenary of the Forestry Commission aroused a great deal of interest, especially among those who had once lived in the forestry houses at Shilburnhaugh, Whickhope and Bewshaugh, all of which now lie beneath the waters of Kielder Reservoir.

The success of this exhibition was due to our own vice-chairman Wesley Turnbull, the son of Mark “Ted” Turnbull who was head forester from the 1950s. Ted worked on farms at Wellhaugh, Gowanburn and Bewshaugh before joining the Forestry in 1932. He attended the Forestry School at Totnes after 1945.

Wesley is a “Man of the Forest” who spent his youth in one of the bungalows at Bewshaugh, built in the 1930s to house Forestry workers, and any trip to Kielder from his present home in Bellingham brings memories of past days. In the first of three articles, he writes about the Changing Faces of Kielder Forest from his personal point of view.

Kielder: Before the Forest

The Forestry bungalows at Bewshaugh

Like many other places in Northumberland, Kielder, a remote area in the north west of the county, has seen troubled times and changes. Items from the Bronze Age have been found and settlements dating from the Iron Age were also discovered. The North Tyne suffered border raids and warfare for many centuries. Whisky stilling and whisky running were a popular occupation. One of the favourite routes for doing this was called "Smuggler's Leap" which is near Smales Farm at Stannersburn. During these periods, names, which are still familiar today, are mentioned in various history articles, namely Kielder Head, Catcleugh, Ravenshill, Butteryhaugh, Bewshaugh, Gowanburn, Lewie and Stannersburn.

Major changes to Kielder first began in the 18th century when Hugh Smithson, created the 1st Duke of Northumberland in 1766, decided to build a hunting lodge on his Kielder Estate; this lodge is now known as Kielder Castle. In 1771, he sent his son, Earl Percy, to decide on a location where he could build the castle. The site he chose was close to where the Kielder Burn joined the North Tyne. It was built on a mound, called Humphrey's Knowe, looking down the valley towards Bewshaugh Moor. Building started in 1772 and was completed in 1775. Other buildings were also erected such as a carriage shed, stables and a hayshed near the castle. Half a mile up the Kielder Burn, a keeper's cottage and kennels were built. One mile down the Castle Wood a lodge and Bothy were completed. The Bothy was for the use of the Duke's staff when they accompanied him at Kielder.

The Castle was renovated on two occasions, in 1840 by the 4th Duke and in 1926 by the 8th Duke. In 1709, a wooden Presbyterian church was built at Lightpipe but this was converted to a hayshed when a new stone chapel and manse were built alongside the road in 1874.

A school was built half a mile down the valley from the Bothy in 1849. During the 1850s, a coal mine was planned by the Duke at Plashetts and houses were built at the Far colliery where the first shaft was dug.

Kielder School in the 1930s

In the 1860s, more houses were built along with a school at the top of Plashetts bank now known as Slater's Incline. After the railway opened to Riccarton Junction during 1862, Plashetts station soon had sidings with loading and weighing facilities. Alongside the station, coal screens, a smithy, joiner's workshop and brickworks were erected. A legacy of the smithy can be found in the Heritage Centre as Arthur Grimwood, the blacksmith at Stannersburn, bought many of the tools when Plashetts Pit closed. The coalfield faced many geological problems and various shafts were opened, the most productive of them being alongside Belling Burn. The general strike in 1926 signalled the end of the colliery as it never fully recovered and eventually closed in 1933. By this time, however, the Forestry Commission had come on the scene and major changes were about to happen.

Kielder: The beginning of the Forest 1926-1939

In 1910, Mr Roy Robinson, later Baron Robinson of Kielder Forest and of Adelaide was appointed as Technical Commissioner by the "Board of Agriculture and Fisheries" to tour the British Isles to investigate the possibilities of timber growth and afforestation. No progress was made with afforestation until the Forestry Commission was established in 1919. Mr Robinson chose two places for experimental planting to take place. One of these was a 3½ square mile area near Smales Farm (Smuggler's Leap). The area was taken on a long-term lease from the Duke of Northumberland. During 1926, under the direction of Mr McNab, the forester at Smales, the saplings were planted straight into the ground, but this did not prove to be successful. A method of the saplings being planted into upturned turf was tried and this method worked well and was used from then on. During 1930, an opportunity came with the death of the 8th Duke when the estate signified their intention to sell what is now the main block of Kielder Forest. The Forestry Commission agreed to purchase the area with exception of the two remote farms of Emblehope and Burn Grange. A price of £105,000 was agreed and as part of the deal it was paid to the Inland Revenue in satisfaction of Death Duties. The area included 90 households including 30 farms with 19,020 sheep, the largest farm being Otterstone Lee which had 10,000 acres. As part of the deal, the 9th Duke took a lease on Kielder Castle which he terminated in 1940. In 1930/31, the Forester at Smales was Mr Jack Anderson and in 1932 Mr Sandy Weir was appointed as Head Forester at Kielder. He was a Scotsman who had been working in Wales. Upon his arrival, he set up home in the lodge beside the viaduct and his office was in the outbuildings. The planting was started and done by hand, as it still is today. Many men were needed and it was very hard demanding work for the planters. By 1933, Mr Weir had 35 men working for him. Some were from Plashetts pit and others from farms taken over by the Forestry Commission. The tree saplings arrived by train and were transported to the workers by horse and cart.

Horses pulling trees from Kielder Forest

During the Depression in 1933, the government built an instructional camp at Lewie, with its own station called Lewiefield Halt, where unemployed men were directed to start a 12-week course on road building and land drainage. This increased the forestry workforce as up to 150 men were at the camp. As the planting involved many men, a plan was made to build houses from Kielder down the valley towards Falstone. The first were at Deadwater, Catcleugh and Castle Drive. Also Bewshaugh, Bakethin, Gowan Burn, Lewisburn, Plashetts, Emmethaugh, Shilburnhaugh and Whickhope. The workers were paid every fortnight and Mr Weir travelled by bicycle from Kielder down the valley paying the men on the way. This was on a 9-mile stretch of single-track road where there were 26 gates. When the Presbyterian Church removed the minister, Mr Weir relocated his family and office to the Manse just north of Kielder station. By 1939, the growth in the local population, due to the development of Kielder Forest, made it necessary to extend the school with the addition of two classrooms in a wooden building, which is now the Club House for Border Park Rugby Club in Butteryhaugh.

The Lodge beside Kielder Viaduct in the 1960s

In the second of his articles on the Changing Faces of Kielder Forest, Wesley Turnbull writes about his father Mark “Ted” Turnbull (1909-1992) and his own days at Kielder School.

“Ted” Turnbull at work

My father joined the Forestry around 1932. At first, he was planting trees and then progressed up the ranks and, when war broke out, he was seconded to the Ministry of Supply to manage a sawmill next to Knowesgate railway station where he stayed until 1945, lodging at a house on the nearby Ray Estate. Upon returning to the Forestry, he attended the Forestry school at Totnes in Devon and was then appointed forester for the Kielder beat. A few months later, an official from Tanganyika came to Bewshaugh to confirm the offer of work on the new (but ill-fated) East Africa Groundnut scheme. He was accompanied by his wife and, during the conversation, she said they had lions and other wild animals come into their garden. That was the end of that job. There was no way that my mother would go. Kielder was a much safer place!

In 1948, when Lord Robinson re-organised the fire protection system, he was appointed Fire Warden based at Kielder Castle. In this post he worked with all the forestry beats and Northumberland Fire Service. The chief fire officer for Northumberland was Mr W Muir and he was a regular visitor along with Ted Dobbin from Bellingham and Ted Harris from Hexham. I seem to remember that a lot of the meetings were held in our house at Bewshaugh where my mother supplied homemade scones and tea.

When the old labour camp closed at Kielder in 1955, he was instrumental in getting the Auxiliary Fire Service to use the buildings on the south side of the camp. Units came from all over Northumberland and trained in the forest so that, if needed, they could provide vital back up to the forestry teams. During the winter months, when the fire risk was low, he relieved foresters from all the other beats when they were on leave. As part of his Forestry role, he was a regular visitor to the labour exchange in Newcastle to interview prospective candidates for employment at Kielder. He often used to take ladies from the Forestry offices to explain about life at Kielder.

He joined the special constables in 1939 and became very active with the Northumberland Police. He acted as their man on the ground at Kielder as the nearest police station was at Bellingham. This involved all sorts of events, missing people, suicide, theft, aircraft crashes, poaching and road traffic accidents. Once again, our house was used for meetings and most of the Police visits started or ended there with more scones and tea on the house.

One incident which my father told me about was in the early part of the War. A concerned forestry worker had been passing Lewisburn Bridge and he had noticed someone hiding in the bushes. Without stopping to investigate, he headed straight to see my father. They both set off and, sure enough, there was foreign person dressed in a uniform. It was a very dark night and he was confused and not giving much away. They took him back to Bewshaugh and a call was made to the sergeant at Bellingham. The police were unable to come to collect him and so they asked my father to keep him secure and they would be there in the morning. After some thought, it was decided to lock him in the coal house. The following morning, he was let out and, in the true light of day, he was wearing a RAF flying suit. This information was passed on to the police, who, in due course, arrived on the scene. It was soon established that he was a Polish airman in the RAF based at Carlisle and had become lost on a training exercise and had made a forced landing up the Lewisburn near Willow Bog. It was arranged that he would be picked up from Bewshaugh by the RAF later in the day. By this time, my mother was feeling sorry for him and supplied him with water and soap and towel to get rid of the coal dust! After this, she cooked him a big breakfast and joined him at the table for a cup of tea. The RAF arrived and, as he was leaving, he gave my mother his ration card (I don’t know what happened to this) and said he would return to see them again. The plane was dismantled where it had come down between High Long House and Willowbog. Billy Steele, whose father was shepherd at Willowbog, still remembers sitting in the cockpit as the Forestry led the plane down to the Forks for recovery by the RAF. A few weeks had passed when, one sunny afternoon, an aircraft flew low over our house. When my mother came out to have a look, the plane carried out a loop over the hay field in front of the house. It carried out two more before doing a victory role, dipping its wings and then heading back towards Carlisle.

'Ted' Turnbull and School days for Wesley Turnbull

My father spent over forty years in the Specials before retiring with the rank of Chief Inspector. He ran the Boy Scouts for a number of years and attracted lots of other scout groups to Kielder where there was always a good supply of firewood waiting for them. During this time, he was appointed as assessor for the Duke of Edinburgh’s award scheme. Another post he held was a governor of Kielder School. During his spare time and mostly during the winter months, he was a keen stick dresser, spending hours in his shed shaping the horns for the sticks. He never sold any, but many were presented to police and fire service at various ceremonies, which were often covered in the Journal.

Kielder School as it looked in the period circa1920-1960

I started at Kielder School in September 1949. The original stone building was now used as the canteen and accommodation for the headmistress Mrs. Redhead. Two classrooms were housed in a wooden building, situated in the playing field to the bottom right of the picture. It is now the club house for Border Park RFC. The toilet facilities were in the yard of the original building and consisted of ash pit toilets. By the time I had left school in July 1955, a further classroom was in use at Bewshaugh Farm half a mile down the valley. This was added after the Forestry took over the farm and converted the buildings into five dwellings for forestry workers and a flat for Mrs. Hope, the third teacher. The building on the right nearest the viaduct was the lodge at the entrance to the Castle wood; the one on the left was the Bothy, later to become Kielder youth hostel.

The use of horses for getting pupils to school ceased during the Second World War. Pupils living at outlying places would live with friend or relatives during the week and go home at the weekend. When motor transport became available in the late forties they were taken to and from home by car.

Dewshaugh, Kielder

The outlying places were Deadwater, Kielder Head, Willow Bog, the Forks and the houses now occupied by foresters at Plashetts Station. Other pupils had to walk or cycle unless they lived within one mile of the school when they were not allowed to take their bikes to school. This applied to us who lived in the Forestry houses near Bewshaugh as we were within one mile. So to overcome this, we used to cycle to Bewshaugh Farm and leave our bikes in the sheep pens and walk the last half mile. A mobile library used to visit every month and a selection of books was left for the next four weeks. A yearly visitor was the school dentist who would park his caravan surgery in the school field. A regular visitor was the School Attendance Officer checking on school truants. As Kielder village was over a mile away, it gave many opportunities for truants to disappear into the forest and reappear when the school closed, arriving back at the village with the other pupils. After the “11+ exam” was taken those who passed went on to Hexham Grammar School the others went to Bellingham County Modern.

Kielder School in 1952

Back Row standing L to R: Mrs. Winifred Redhead (née Yeaman), Agnes Murray, David Parker, John Murray, John Steele, George Dobson, Billy Charters, Neville Fox, Brian Gallon, Elaine Fetcher, Mrs. Amy Fox (née Allcroft)
Second Row standing L to R: Bobby Welsh, Moira Blankenburgs, Joan Armstrong, Evelyn Slee, Vera Steele, Maureen Fox, Averil Ellis, Pat Armstrong, Geoffrey Fox
Third Row seated L to R: Susan Young, Verena Ellis, Cynthia Parker, Pat Hutton, Ann Scott, Judith Hillman, Joyce Hall, Hilary Blackwell, Jennifer Fletcher, Jennifer Rutter, Shirley Main
Front Row kneeling L to R: Robert Murray, Eric Stout, Alan Jewitt, Boyd Gallon, Wesley Turnbull, Gordon Forbes, Raymond Summers

The Forest Grows (1940 onwards)

In the final article Wesley describes the growth of the forest and the development of the reservoir which have shaped the current landscape.

In 1945, after the end of the war, the Forestry split into different areas called beats (Kielder, Mounces, Plashetts, Whickhope and Smales), with the main office in Kielder Castle. Motorised vehicles began to arrive such as tractors, wagons, excavators and ex-army jeeps. By the late forties, the trees were big enough to be thinned and this involved more labour. Eight villages were planned but in the end only three were built. Kielder was the largest but the plans to increase the size were reduced by over 50%. The two others were Byrness and Stonehaugh. The trees to be thinned were cut down with a bushman saw and then the branches were stripped with an axe before being pulled by horse to the forest roadside to be transported to the sawmill beside Kielder viaduct. The main buyer was the National Coal Board who required pit props of different lengths. Once cut, the props were peeled then transported to pits all over the North East. During the early fifties, chainsaws began to replace the handsaws but at this stage hand axes were still used to strip the branches.

With the railway running down the valley, the forest suffered a loss of 250 acres due to fires in the period 1935-1945. A system was adopted during 1945 to leave a grazing belt 200 feet wide between the line and the trees and this was also done along main roads. In 1948, after a dry spring, there was the loss of 850 acres of 10 to 12 year old trees. As a result of this, Lord Robinson called for a conference at Kielder on 27th July to review fire protection. From this, a Canadian system was adopted where look-out towers were erected on high points at Mount Common, Bewshaugh and Highfield. These towers were connected by field telephones to a Fire Warden's office in the Castle. Each forest beat had its own fire team who practised regularly and, in March 1951, a large practice was organised at Bewshaugh which involved all the forestry teams and a large presence from the Northumberland Fire Service. By this stage, an ex-army Ford Windsor tracked carrier was converted into a fire engine with two large water tanks.

When the railway closed in 1956, the fire risk was considerably reduced. When Kielder camp closed during 1955, the Auxiliary Fire Service took over the huts on the south side of the camp.

The Ford Windsor tracked carrier converted into a fire engine

They regularly used the forest for training exercises and provided a back-up in case of fire.

Head Forester ‘Ted’ Turnbull explains the fire exercise in 1951

During the late sixties, mechanisation began with the arrival of Harvesters and Forwarders which increased the output and reduced the labour requirements. The year 2019 marked 100 years since the Forestry Commission was established and 93 years since the first tree was planted in Kielder Forest. With its name now changed to Forestry England, Kielder produces a third of all timber that Forestry England supplies. This is around 1,250 tons per day, equal to 50 wagon loads. Today about 70 people are employed by Forestry England in the North Tyne but all planting, harvesting and road making is carried out by contractors. Few of the houses in Kielder village are now occupied by Forestry workers.

Planning for Water (1968-1982)

Another big change came in the early seventies with the construction of Kielder Water. After two public inquiries, the Kielder Water Order was finally approved on 21st May 1974. Preparations began at once with tree felling and a public relations officer arrived to liaise between construction firms and locals, who were worried that “hard-drinking and big-spending” workers would bring a “gold rush” atmosphere to the area, reminiscent of the Klondike. Construction continued over the next six years and, on 14th July 1980, the earth core of the dam was completed. Filling followed on 15th December. After two years, the reservoir was full and the formal opening ceremony was performed by Queen Elizabeth on 26th May 1982.

To clear the area for the reservoir, three farms, ten smallholdings and 45 houses had been demolished. Most of the properties were owned by the Forestry Commission and the occupants were offered houses at Kielder, Falstone and Bellingham. The Forestry Office and Workshop relocated to Bellingham. The nine-mile reservoir has inlets from five burns, which supply large quantities of water off the moors to keep the reservoir supplied.

The reservoir was planned to restrict and control the flow of water down the North Tyne before it was extracted and pumped to the River Tees where it would be used for industry. By the time the dam was finished, however, the industry at Teesside had declined and so the water was not required. When the idea of a reservoir was first mentioned, many of the residents of the valley saw it as “a White Elephant scheme” and how right they were.

Retrospect

The North Tyne Valley has seen many major changes over the last 150 years. First the navvies to build the Border Counties Railway (1856-1862), then the miners to live and work at Plashetts colliery (1861-1926), the foresters to plant and maintain Kielder Forest (1926+), the long-term unemployed who were sent on 12-week courses at Kielder Camp (1932-1939) and finally the workers to build and maintain Kielder Reservoir (1974+). In 1948, Kielder station had been renamed Kielder Forest and was vital for the residents of the new forestry village, formally opened by Lord Robinson in 1952. The railway closed in 1956, causing great hardship to local residents, many of whom did not own cars.

The end of the story? Perhaps. But will the telecoms masts that crown the heights of Deadwater Fell be joined by the masts of a wind farm? Will Kielder become the champion of the three renewables – Wood, Water and Wind – for which more later.