Real work, done well
With International Peening Day (5th April 2026) approaching I thought it would be a good time to post an update review on Peening methods. 2025 seemed to be the year in which peening devices: ‘dengel apparat’ featured prominently A special peening edition of the 2025 Windrow newsletter No 21 included a number of detailed reviews […]
This event took place on 20th July at Wandlebury Country Park on the Gog Magog Hills just outside Cambridge. The site has the remains of a circular Iron Age Hillfort as well as flower-rich meadows, woodland, orchards, walled gardens and an 18th century house with stables. It is owned and cared for by local charity […]
This year’s Northern Scythe Festival once again was hosted by Peter Blackwell at Bell Sykes in Slaidburn on 12th and 13th August. This farm has a very special series of flower rich Coronation meadows within the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire. For scythers of all abilities these meadows are a joy to mow, and is […]
Another great Festival took place on Saturday 19th July at the Cultybraggan Camp near Comrie in Perthshire with 180 attendees. The more publicly accessible site meant that we also attracted a few onlookers who were in the area anyway. We had some fascinating workshops this year, all very practical and inspiring; Lynne Bates on the […]
This was certainly the first bracken cutting competition in Shropshire, probably in England and possibly the world! It took place at Bank Rack on the Stiperstones National Nature Reserve on the 1st August 2025 as the culmination of a week of ‘Scything with a View’ in the Shropshire Hills.. The competition swaths cut were 2 […]
The 19th West Country Scythe Championship saw some challenging conditions for the event organisers due to a combination of prolonged winter flooding of the competition arena, followed by the exceptionally dry spring baking the bare ground created by the waterlogging. The result was a the shortest poorest grass we have ever faced, with a lot […]
This festival day was held in Rathbeagh, Co Kilkenny; one of a number of events held in Ireland in 2024. The day was all about knowledge transfer to share the traditional skill of scything, and also connection, community, collaboration and celebration. Over 50 people attended here in August to take part in various workshops during […]
Report written by Neil Gemmell and Richard Brown As a scything community we scythe enthusiasts/afficionados, some would even say addicts, all convene in a field in Somerset to hold the West Country Scythe Championships at the Green Scythe Fair. This year’s event was the 18th West Country Scythe Championship and the competition was once again […]
This week long event of scything across the Shropshire Hills included getting a lot of bracken cut plus a few meadows along the way. It culminated in a competition and BBQ. The results from the scything competition 18 entries on a 4x4m square Key: Male, Female, Veteran, Novice; * = Winner; Blades in cm; Time […]
For the second year this revived event took place on 21st July at Wandlebury Country Park on the Gog Magog Hills just outside Cambridge. The site has the remains of a circular Iron Age Hillfort as well as flower-rich meadows, woodland, orchards, walled gardens and an 18th century house with stables. It is owned and […]