Lime bast – 2026 update

Barrie Galpin

For several years members of the coppicing group who work as volunteers for Natural England in the National Nature Reserve of Easton Hornstocks have been exploring ways of reviving the ancient craft of making rope from the bark of Small-leaved Lime trees. Click to read more about the lime trees and the process of making rope in two other posts by members of the group.

In 2025 we were approached by the Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company to provide lime bast for them to make cordage and rope for the reconstruction of an Anglo-Saxon ship in Suffolk. We were keen to help with this project while realising that we would need rather more material than we have been producing in previous years. Staff at Natural England where very helpful in allowing us to take down more of the overgrown lime coppice and to strip the bark and by hand on site. This was carried out in early May while the sap was still rising. We were particularly careful to ensure that no nesting birds were disturbed, checking each tree and nearby habitat before work commenced.

The next stage of the process to create cords and rope involves soaking the bark for a period of several weeks-- a process known as retting. Previously we had soaked the bark in water butts, but we knew that this year we would need a much larger body of water to soak large bundles of bark.

A few miles from Easton Hornstocks there is a large landfill site operated by Augean PLC. The site is an extensive former quarry known as Cooks Hole and, once parts are filled, they are being restored, creating a range of rich wildlife habitats. Augean have already created several ponds and lakes as part of the restoration process and we decided to ask staff at Augean whether we could use one of their new ponds to soak lime bark. They were very interested in the project and delighted to help in any way that they could, in particular by offering to use a forklift truck to get the bundles of bark into the centre of one of the ponds.

So, after the tree trunks had been stripped we arrived at the quarry with several very large bundles of bark.  We thought that the bark bundles were very likely to float so we tied several large rocks to the bundles, loaded up the forklift and watched as it reached out into the deep water of the pond. We were very relieved to see the mass of bark gently disappear beneath the surface of the water. We had tied a rope to the bundles in order to retrieve the retted bark once the bacteria in the water had done their work.

Seven weeks later we returned and the forklift was again instrumental in getting the soaked bark back onto dry land. But it was certainly not a pretty sight! A stinking mass of slimy, muddy material emerged from the water. We had assumed we would need to hose it off but the Augean team suggested driving the load through their lorry-washing machine and this worked wonders. The wet and still slimy material was dumped in the trailer and we bade farewell to the Augean team who had given us so much help.

The disgusting stinking mass was driven to Adam Cade's house for the next process –separating the outer bark from the precious layers of bast just below the surface.

This is definitely a job for the hands. In some cases the bast almost lifted away from the bark. In other cases we had to dig our nails in to get a start and then gently pull the long strips of bast away from the outer coating. Some bits seemed more satisfactory than others so therewas a fair amount of sorting and then the bast was hung up to dry.

In the coming days the bast will be transported to Suffolk and the next batch of volunteers will take over the process of making rope from trees. We’ll look forward to the time when the ship is launched, knowing that it will have ropes and cordage made from trees here in Rockingham Forest

We are most grateful to those staff at Augean and at Natural England who have enthusiastically enabled us to scale up our production of lime bast this year, reviving a historical craft which is so much a part of the heritage of Rockingham Forest.