442 



Besom-making. 



[Aug., 



Cane sometimes costs 10s. a ewt. and freight another 

 5s. a cwt. 



A man who does not own a horse and cart has an-; 

 other expense. To send besoms to the station ready to be 

 shipped away may cost 2s. 6d. a load; before the War the 

 rail w^ ay collected them free. 



Markets. — Sheffield seems to provide an unlimited market 

 for besoms. They are used to sweep up steel-shavings in many 

 wwks, and as some of the floors are hot and burn away the 

 besoms quickly, they are required in large quantities. One 

 man who has a larger establishment for making besoms than 

 most others, sends fifty dozen a week to Sheffield. Others 

 supply railw'ay companies, coal mines, and m.alt kilns at 

 Derby. Newark and many other places. For malt kilns, besoms 

 made of ling rather than heather are preferred ; for lawns they 

 are always made of birch. 



Some years ago when many battleships were being built 

 and large quantities of steel plates were being made in Shef- 

 field, another use for birch twigs w^as discovered. Eed-ho*t 

 steel plates develop a kind of flake or shale when they first 

 come in contact with the air; the burning of birch twigs 

 strew^n lightly on them removes the flake. One besom-maker 

 W'ho supplies the steel trade in Sheffield used to send -bundles 

 of birch tw^igs to be used for this purpose. Other twigs can 

 be used but birch are the best. This trade is now^ at a 

 standstill. 



Besoms and Baskets. — One or tw^o besom-makers combine 

 with their business that of making a sort of rough oak basket 

 known as a skipp or skepp. The oak is soaked in hot water 

 and then split into wade thin strips: these are then woven 

 round a framewwk of strong osier or thin hazel. The basket 

 when finished is not tight enough for coal but is used for 

 coke, and in some of the Sheffield works it feeds furnaces 

 where basket as w^ell as coke must be consigned to the flames. 

 It is particularly useful for such a purpose because all the 

 material of which it is made will burn. 



The oak is usually of that quality w^hich, in the winter of 

 1920-21, was sold for 3s. 6d. a foot. This is not the best 

 quality, but any size will do for the besom-maker as long as 

 it is " kind." It must be straight and without knots. iVbout 

 sixteen dozen of these baskets go to Sheffield each w^eek and 

 the price is 30s. a dozen. One man can make ten baskets in 

 a day (from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m."), but if his oak is split and all 

 materials ready he can make sixteen to eighteen baskets a day. 



