Copse-cutting
Photograph by Gertrude Jekyll
Frm Old West Surrey (1904).
"Copse-cutting is one of the handy labourer's winter harvests, and is done by piecework. One of the industries. that grow out of it, namely hoop-making, was described at some length in 'Wood and Garden.' It is the making of hoops for barrely and packing-cases; hoops shaved on both sides and made up in neat bundles of standard lengths. The shavings make a capital and durable thatch. Hoop-making, which is still carried on in the woods of the district on a rather large scale, is probably not an ancient industry. It must have grown with the modern facilities for communication, for the largest and longest of the hoops go to the tropics for sugar hogsheads." — Old West Surrey, p. 204
Scanned image and text by George P. Landow].