Coppicing is the ancient craft of cutting trees and shrubs to ground level and although this might at first appear destructive, coppicing yields important material benefits with the strong re-growth from the coppice stools providing a renewable source of timber for many uses.

Our ancestors were experts in understanding how to manage their resources in a renewable manner. Coppiced ash and oak provide the structure to an "iron age house" while the hazel forms the basis of the walls. Utilisation of coppiced material sustained this kind of building program for thousands of years.

Coppiced hazel is caked in clay to form a durable and effective wall in an iron age house. The image illustrates a hazel partition with a fully developed wall to the left of the image.

Coppiced material was widely used for fencing in livestock. Here stout fencing with oversized material would have been suitable to contain cattle.

Timber frame, timber walls and a straw roof. The renewable alternative to building regulations with a 5000 year pedigree.

Smaller, but just as homely!