An old broom sweeps clean

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/27/old-broom-sweeps-clean

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In the great gathering of craftsmen, artificers and artisans at the Stock Gaylard oak fair, the one who first caught our eye was Terry Heard, bent over his ingeniously fashioned wooden bench specially adapted to the broomsquire’s traditional craft of making besoms from bundles of twigs bound to a pole.

His twigs, he said, were of birch, though heather was often used, and his poles were of hazel, though any straight pole would do. A blacksmith friend had made his tools. He tightly bound and wired a bundle of twigs, trimmed them with a sharp hand-axe, inserted the sharpened end of the pole and hammered in pins to fix it all with the deft handiness of the expert.

On our way to the next stall we met a wandering minstrel with long skirt and wide-brimmed straw hat. Her bagpipes were slung over her shoulder as she played a pipe with one hand and tabor, or portable snare-drum, with the other.

It was, she said, the music of ancient morris dancers, and it made a fitting accompaniment to the work of the other craftspeople at the fair: the Devon wheelwright, the wood-turners operating bow or treadle lathes, the trugmakers who had shaped shaved strips of wood round a frame, or the thatchers up on a roof.

Among so much that belonged to English countryside tradition, it was a surprise to hear another kind of music, this time from deep in Australian history. The didgeridoo maker was himself English but taught by an Australian. He told us of how the instrument originated from fallen limbs of gum tree bored out by termites. A practised aboriginal musician would know simply by tapping the wood whether it would produce the music.

The oak fair is “for those interested in timber, woodcraft, the countryside and conservation”. And to reflect the fact that it is devoted not just to the quaint and antique but to utilitarian uses of wood to meet today’s needs, we now sweep up leaves and debris with our new and supremely efficient besom bought from the broomsquire.