An old broom sweeps clean

Stock Gaylard, Dorset The oak fair is for those interested in timber, woodcraft, the countryside and conservation

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.

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