SCYTHE KERNOW

Increasing native biodiversity using traditional hand tools and methods.

What We Do


Scything & Contract Mowing

Our bread and butter is essentially mowing large areas by hand. If you have an area of grassland that you wish to manage in a way that will increase the diversity of the flora and fauna within and establish a ‘wildflower meadow’ then we can help. Whether that is consultancy or just getting us to do our thing then please get in touch.

Remember that even a small patch of grassland can be converted to wildflowers, so you can have an area you let go ‘wilder’ in your garden. A ‘garden meadow’.

Read about the benefits of scything and increasing biodiversity through wildflower establishment here.


Scythe Tuition

If you fancy tackling your own patch and taking a really hands-on approach to your own land management, We offer courses and one to one tuition on using the scythe effectively. Please get in touch for details or to arrange a bespoke session. We cover all of Cornwall.


Hedgelaying

Hedgelaying is the winter work and we love it. When the scything season ends, the hedgelaying season begins.

Laying a hedge in the traditional manner, creates a stockproof boundary, by cutting the stems and laying them horizontally (in the ‘Devon’ style, also the Cornish) the cut stems - or pleachers - then re-grow up vertically. They are then laid again in the future creating a thick, natural, woven, living fence which provides havens, homes and corridors for all manner of native wildlife.

We mainly work in the ‘Devon’ style, as most of our Cornish hedges are on banks as they are in Devon. There are many regional styles, some quite ornate, and we can discuss these, however we find quite often the hedges round these ways are over-stood, meaning they have not been laid for many years since the advent of flail mowing, so they require quite a severe restoration .

You will see large stalls of hazel, ash or thorn, that have now become trees basically, around field boundaries that were planted to be laid if you walk around or by many fields in Cornwall.


Green Woodwork/Carvings

We both love our bodging and making structures using the traditional green woodwork. We can make bespoke gates and post and rail fences, get in touch to talk about this.

Watch this space for carvings and sculptures, mainly done in yew wood.

Not to put too finer point on it, but we’re obsessed with all hand tools. We can offer the following:

  • Peening and scythe blade maintainence and/or tuition in this.

  • Old tool restoration - anything you have lying about rusted up we can restore. Older tools generally have much better steel.

  • Axe and billhook sharpening and tuition.

  • Buy and sell old tools.


Hand Tool Advice, Guidance and Maintenance