It was lovely to spend the day with the new rangers team at Preston Park, near Middlesbrough in the north-east as they learned how to scythe. The team are looking to start managing their wildflower meadow by hand to increase the biodiversity and make hay. They’re off to a flying start!
Visit my Learn to Scythe page for details of courses around the UK and how to arrange a course for your group.
Hi Steve,
It’s Chris from the Improvers scything course here. Wanted to say I had the most enjoyable day. You tweaked my technique which had a huge positive impact on my self taught ‘skill’. You also respected the fact that I wanted to peen by hand and tweaked that for me too.
I went home feeling like I was a better mower. Headed straight for my allotment and wha’ ya know, I swished and mowed like I’d been doing it for a hundred years and had been taught by my father’s father’s father! I even managed to achieve (OK, only a little) that glorious metallic chime which the blade gives as it sings, defining a lovely sharp blade with that beautiful arc-cut. And no sore back.
Just a couple of photos from a terrific scything course at Malham in Yorkshire as part of the Bee Together project for the Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust. A great group of people, fantastic scenery and wonderful venue at Hill Top Farm bunkhouse.
A few weeks ago I travelled down to Northamptonshire to teach a group how to scythe at Rushden Lakes, a nature reserve managed by the Wildlife Trust. The reserve is on the edge of a retail park which made for an interesting juxtaposition between the weekend shoppers and our group of beginners learning to scythe.
We were working in a beautiful wildflower meadow on the site which made for fabulous scything.
If you have a group of volunteers or friends managing a wildflower meadow, I can travel to you and teach a learn to scythe course at your venue. Please email me stevetomlin8[at]gmail.com for further details.
See my Learn to Scythe course page for more details and information about other scythe courses.
It’s great to see my friend Peter Blackwell and his family getting the recognition they deserve for their work managing the hay meadows Bell Sykes Farm at Slaidburn in Lancashire.
The meadows at Bell Sykes are wonderful wildflower habitats and absolutely beautiful as well as being an important and rare habitat. Over several years, Peter has been working with the Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust, hosting wildflower walks, seed saving workshops and other events to promote the wildflower meadows. The meadows at Bell Sykes were selected as the Coronation Meadow for Lancashire have also been used as donor meadows, to seed other land in the area and create new meadows.
I met Peter several years ago when he came on one of my Learn to Scythe courses and he’s gone on to be a fantastic mower and key player in northern scythe events as well as winning the Quality Cup at the Somerset Scythe Festival 2018.
I am teaching a Learn to Scythe course at Bell Sykes on 3rd August 2019. If you would like to come and learn scything at a fabulous location in Lancashire and see some of the farm, please email me stevetomlin8[at]gmail.com for details.
Toni & Ken look after a couple of acres near Nantwich in Cheshire. Toni contacted me wanting to learn to scythe so they could cut their meadow and make hay by hand for their donkeys.
I travelled to meet them and we spent a fantastic day scything in the meadow together while they learned how to set up an Austrian scythe, honing the blade and cutting the long meadow grass.
If you’d like to learn to scythe at your own venue, I can come to deliver bespoke training on a 1-to-1 basis or for a group. Please email me for more details.
Here is some lovely feedback from Toni, the day after the course:
Hi Steve
Just got the nets in having turned the hay twice today. It’s bone dry so can be netted this evening and then we’ll feel we’re making progress and do some more tomorrow after we’ve checked our blades and honed once more!!!!
It was a great day. Totally exhausting with both the brain and body tired but we both woke up this morning to another gorgeous day and set to turning the hay – a huge amount, it’s filled 8 nets so we hope to get the baler made in the next 2 wks as well need to free up some haynets!!!!
Will let you know how this mad scheme goes. At the moment we’re feeling a little overwhelmed so it’s one day at a time!
We both thought your training was great. Your life sounds fascinating and it’s admirable that you have carved yourself a unique lifestyle. We will certainly recommend you and your courses.
Toni
It was National Meadow Day today and I had a fantastic day teaching a group how to scythe at Hullard Park in Old Trafford, Manchester. The park has a fabulous wildflower meadow which is in need of some cutting so this workshop was organised to train local people in scything.
There was a great atmosphere all day as people made new connections as well as learning the skills of scything and getting involved in the meadow management. Courses like this are perfect for building community networks and as important for that as for all the work which got done.
If you’re in the area on Sunday 7th July, I’ll be back in the meadow as part of Old Trafford Open Gardens – come along to find out about scything, meadow management and Hullard Park.
Some lovely feedback from Kevin Tone, Wellbeing Team Co-ordinator at the Wells Rd Centre, Nottingham.
Hi Steve
We all agreed that it’s the best couple of days training we have had, we loved it and are completely hooked! We spent all day today in the paddock honing our new skills. Sunburn and hay fever riddled but it was fantastic.
I got some feedback from Keith and Rob today and we all agreed that you have a great teaching style and your clear passion and enthusiasm and you encapsulate the whole ethos and what we are trying to create at Spinney Meadow and you would go down really well with our patient group.
I’m going to look into trying to network with people in the local area that are into scything and organising a day where they can come along to Spinney and cut the grass with us and patients and hopefully get you along as well as the VIP for the day (or two). Thanks again Steve I will be in touch.
Cheers
Kev
Peening is a process of cold-forging and used with an Austrian scythe to thin the blade at the edge so that the bevel angle is finer. It’s a maintenance task that lots of people don’t enjoy or are nervous of trying. The peening jig greatly simplifies it and, with a little instruction, it’s a relatively straightforward task.
At The Wells Road Centre in Nottingham Kev, Keith and Rob got a brilliant demonstration of the benefits of regular peening during their course. We spent the first day learning about setting up the scythes and getting to grips with honing the blade and the mowing technique. The ditch blades they were using were all brand new and cut reasonably well. I then gave them each a try with my own blade and revealed the reason it seemed to cut so much more easily and neatly: peening.
After a short explanation and demonstration, the guys were all keen to get peening their own blades and Keith had even built a set of peening benches specially for it. They did a lovely job of peening the scythes and then we went back out to the grass. I wish I’d caught the smile on Rob’s face as his blade swished across the ground, effortlessly cutting the lawn around the centre. Keith and Kev were straight off to mow the meadow with ‘completely different’ scythes.
If you’ve been putting off peening or want to be sure of getting the best results, I am running a special peening workshop in Lancashire on 11th October. Come and learn the skills to confidently peen your scythe blade and transform your cutting. Email me stevetomlin8[at]gmail.com to book your place.
