242 CHARCOAL-BURNING IN ESSEX. 



South Hanningfield, who has long been a vendor of charcoal and 

 to whom I am indebted for most of the information I have been 

 able to collect upon tlie subject. Near the inn is a hearth upon 

 which charcoal is occasionally burnt. 



Last autumn it was my good fortune to catch a charcoal- 

 burner at work in the Highwoods near Writtle. The under- 

 growth had been cleared the year before and the copse poles 

 cut into three-foot lengths and piled into cords of wood, but the 

 hearth was far from any path, and, had it not been for the 

 sunshine filtering through the autumnal foliage of the oaks and 

 illuminating the smoke from the fire it would have been hard to 

 find. The hearth was protected from the wind by a screen of 

 bracken, built up between two oak trees, to a height of eight or 

 ten feet. In the centre was the burning pile, already three parts 

 burnt and sunk from a height of six feet, as originally built, to 

 about four feet high. A pungent blinding smoke rose from the 

 heap. Now and then the fire broke through tlie coating of hearth 

 dust with which the heap was covered, revealing the glowing 

 *' coals " inside. Most of the surface was covered w'itli a fungus- 

 like growth, apparently a sublimate from the process of 

 destructive distillation to w^hich the wood was being subjected. 

 Close by was a shovel and a heap of hearth dust for mending 

 the apertures made in the coating by the fire breaking through, 

 a ladder for reaching the middle of the heap, otherwise inacces- 

 sible, a heap of '' brands," i.e., the half-burnt ends of sticks 

 found at the base of the heap when the burning is completed, 

 and another of " charm " or small charcoal, both of which are 

 used to start the next " fire," and lastly a tub for holding water 

 and a pail for bringing it from the runnel near, the water being 

 used for " quenching " the fire at the end of the process. A 

 few yards aw^ay was the hut, which served as home to the 

 charcoal burner when at work in the wood. 



As one of the few survivors of an ancient craft, the charcoal- 

 burner himself was an interesting personality. Skilled in all the 

 details of the process, versed in the value for its various purposes 

 of the charcoal produced from the different woods found in the 

 Essex woodlands, and using the technical phraseology employed 

 in the last paragraph, he seemed typical of a race of men that the 

 last century has done much to annihilate. Though having a 

 cottage at Billericay, he must yet live for weeks at a time beside 



