Somerset is the last place in the country where willow is still grown commercially for basketmaking. Evidence of willow or withy cultivation on the Somerset Levels can be traced back to the Bronze Age. Not far from our workshops in Somerset, a woven willow track has been uncovered near Glastonbury dating back some 4000 years. One of the reasons for willow growing in this area is due to the fact that the area floods each winter and little ‘agricultural improvement’ has been made. The main beds are to be found around Burrowbridge, twelve miles east of Taunton and further south around Langport. These areas are known as the levels or moors with names such as Hay Moor, Curry Moor or King’s Sedgemoor. Before the War over three thousand acres were grown, but today this has shrunk to about a tenth of that area. Before the era of plastics, willow baskets were used extensively for agricultural and home consumption. Apples, potatoes, fish, glass, china and pottery were always carried in willow baskets. Willow furniture was also very popular.
The two activities of growing and basketmaking have traditionally been separated skills and activities, but both interdependent. Most of the remaining families can trace their skills back through many generations, the photo (above) shows the maternal great grandparent of Darrell Hill, a Director of the Somerset Willow Company Ltd. The photo was taken at a basketmaking firm in Somerset during the turn of the century.
Willow Growing
There are over 200 varieties of willow but few are now grown in Somerset. The most popular is Black Maul, which gives a good clean rod of about six feet. One variety, Bowles Hybrid, is left to grow a second season to attain a height of over sixteen, which is often used in river bank erosion schemes as a more attractive solution than hard concrete or piling.
Growing willow is very labour intensive, needing constant attention. Although fast growing the willow rods are subject to several diseases. Sheep or young bullocks are often led into the willow beds to keep down the weeds because they haven’t got any teeth to damage the willow stumps.
Harvesting the willow is today generally done by machine , although a few still cut by hand using a sickle, the work is certainlt back breaking and slower but should leave a cleaner stip. Cutting is done between November and April but is subject to delays if water is on the moor . Some parts may be flooded to a depth of several feet in severe floods, which can last up to a month.
Four types of willow rods are generally used in basket making, green, Buff, White and Brown. Green rods are used in their natural state, having gone through no treatment process, their name originates from the raw state, not their colour. Buff, the most popular, is obtained by boiling the willows, to release the naturally occurring colourant Tannin from the bark into the wood. The bark is then stripped from the willow revealing the characteristic red-brown colouring. The stripping is done by a revolving brake, a machine much like a threasher commonly used to harvest corn. White willow can only be produced for six springtime weeks a year, whilst the sap is rising the willow is cut and stripped of its bark straight away without boiling.
Brown willow is boiled but not stripped of its bark. The willow is then spread out ready for drying ready for sorting into heights, they are then tied and made into bundles.
Basketmaking Basketmaking is demanding on the hands and needs a good deal of strength for some of the larger items. To learn the art of basketmaking to a professional standard can take in excess of four years. Apprentices start off by making bases for small items such as hampers. As their training progresses they can expect to work up to more complex lines, such as furniture and hot air balloon baskets, all of which demand a much higher level of skill and strength. A trained craftsman can produce ten, three foot wide dog baskets in a day, non varying in width by more than half an inch. Such speed and dexterity is only acheived by constant practice and application.
History Of Balloon Basket Making
The History of balloon basket making seems quite vague, much has been written about the earliest hot air balloons, but details of what they attached to the envelope rarely was described.
The earliest recording of an “accompanied” flight – with a sheep, a rooster and a duck on board – was organised by the mongolfiers on September 19, 1783, from the gardens of the palace of versailles, watched on by Louis XVI. It was more than likely that some sort of basic woven basket would have been used to contain the animals.
The first recorded manned flight in hot air balloon basket takes place in Paris on November 21, 1783, built from paper and silk by the Montgolfier brothers, this balloon was piloted on a 22-minute flight by Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis Francois Laurent d’Arlandes. From the centre of Paris they ascended 500 feet above the rooftops before eventually landing about 6 miles away in vineyards. Local farmers were very suspicious of the fiery dragon descending in the sky from the sky. The pilots offered Champagne to placate them and celebrate the flight , a tradition carried on by balloonists to this day. Again no reference was made to what was attached to the envelope .
Then on December 1, 1783 the first manned gas balloon is launched by Jacques Alexander Charles and Nicholas Louis Robert. Starting in Paris the flight lasted 2 and ½ hours. Upon landing, Robert apparentely stepped out of a basket, which caused the balloon to rise again, this time to 9000 ft. Charles later landed safely. This is the first real reference to a basket being used no description is given.
In October 1960 after 177 years of virtually static advancement in hot air ballooning some imaginitive people launched the first manned hot air balloon basket flight with a continous burner source and petroleum fuel – the birth of the modern day balloon system. With this revolution in hot air ballooning having taken place, the need to carry passengers increased and so balloon baskets, as we know them today began to appear.
How Balloon Baskets are made
Ballon baskets are woven from a variety of materials, one of them being willow. Willow is grown commercially as a crop. The most common type used is generally reddy brown in colour and used in the ‘randing’ weave, which is a type of weave where one rod of willow is woven at a time, in between the uprights (panels on the side of the basket). Willow is much lighter in weight than most other materials. Kooboo cane is also used, this is imported from the jungles of indonesia, where it grows up to 30ft ibn length and once stripped of its outer bark and thorns is yellow in colour. Kooboo cane is a tree parasite and is harvested periodically thus helping to preserve the natural jungle of Indonesia. This material is used for the ‘wailing’ of the basket because it strengthens the weave and is used on the base and intermittentently up the sides in between the panels of willow. Another cane or rattan used in the making of balloon baskets is Tohiti cane, this is much thicker and harder than Kooboo and is used for the main supports, in the base and uprights of the basket, this is a very versatile material and can be steamed and bent very easily. Nearly all the balloon baskets you see are made from these materials. Larger baskets also incorporate modern materials to add extra strength, these are usually frames made from stainless steel which form the top and bottom frame of the basket, then solid nylon poles or large Tohiti sticks are used for the base and uprights and then willow and cane are used to weave in the base and sides. This method produces a strong robust basket that will bend and flex to absorb the shocks of landing.
Balloon baskets can be made either with a traditional woven base as already described or they can be made with a plywood base which is laced onto the woven section and the stainless steel cables are passed underneath.
Each balloon basket has stainless steel wire cables, which are incoporated into the weave of the basket. Running from the top of the basket, down the sides, underneath or through the base and then up the other side. These stainless steel wire cables are the means as to how the balloon basket is connected to the envelope.
Once the balloon basket is woven, which can sometimes take two basketmakers up to two weeks to make, the balloon basket has to go through various other processes before final completion. Firstly raw hide is soaked in water and stiched between the base and sides of the basket. It is white in colour and once dried forms a very hard membrane, which protects the bottom edge of the basket from scuffing and knocks. Ash battens/runners are fixed on the outer bottom of the ballon basket and these are used to protect the base. This type of wood is very, hard, but alsoflexible and light in weight. After the battens have been fitted the baskets are finally fitted with padding and leather edging.
Interesting facts and info
In 1987 we produced the worlds largest hot air balloon basket. This basket was designed in the form of a double decker bus and carried 50 people. It broke the world record carrying 50 passengers in flight.
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