Previous scythe courses

Here is a selection of scythe training courses (and some related activities) that have been delivered in the past.

Beginners’ training days for:

• New Forest District Council grounds staff 2022
• Whatley Manor Hotel garden staff 2022
• National Trust at Hardy’s Cottage staff and volunteers 2021/22
• South Downs National Park volunteers 2022
• Cotswolds Conservation Board, 20 courses on the Cotswolds Rural Skills programme 2015-21
• Hazel Hill Trust volunteers 2020/22
• Wadhurst Park Staff, volunteers and local community 2019-22
• Combe Grove Hotel staff and visitors 2019
• Kingcombe Centre (Dorset Wildlife Trust) course programme 2017
• Flora Locale course programme 2017
• Moor Meadows Group Dartmoor 2017-22
• Westonbirt Arboretum (Forestry Commission) 2017
• Caring for God’s Acre Project, at church yards in Bournemouth and Stalbridge in 2015/16
• Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, for staff and volunteers, Winchester 2014 & 2017
• New Forest Land Advice Service, Hampshire, for local projects, 2014 and 2016

Beginner’s courses have also been delivered for:

• Somerset Wildlife Trust
• Wiltshire Wildlife Trust
• Butterfly Conservation
• Buglife
• Carymoor Environmental Trust
• East Devon District Council
• Green Scythe Fair

For images from some of the above courses, see this Flickr picture gallery: →

Langford Lakes (WWT) May 2012

Other training and activities:

• Scythe training for actors and supporting artists, in authentic technique. Also preparation of English scythes with bows for wheat harvest.

          - Far From the Madding Crowd was released in

            cinemas May 2015 (for Fox Searchlight (UK) Ltd.)

          - The Living And The Dead TV drama screened in

            June 2016 (for BBC Grafton House Ltd.)

• Scything and Cider Festival at Wakehurst Place, West Sussex for Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Training and competitions over the weekend. 2014 & 2015