Details supplied by Archie Whatton. Photos supplied by the Whatton Family and reproduced with their kind permission.

More on the Whatton Family Firm

The involvement of the Whatton family in the timber trade extends further back than that outlined in the "Men of the Woods" feature story. We are indebted to Archie Whatton for filling in many of the details surrounding the photos on this page, which show the everyday reality of a family firm which operated from 1920 to 1982.

Read about The Whatton' Family's involvement with Rowley Wood

This picture of bark strippers in Salcey Forest was taken around 1900. The bark is being stripped off for use in the tanning industry. The men identified here are (left to right): (unknown); George Whatton, Edric's father; (unknown); Jim Webster; John Whatton; (unknown); (unknown); Edric Whatton - the founder of the firm; William Brice (who is commemorated by a stained glass window in Hartwell Church).

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From field to lorry

Above - Bill Douglas dragging felled trunks across a field using a chain attached to a caterpillar tractor

Below - Bob Whatton performing a similar task but using a mechanical arm and tracked bogie arrangement which lifted the tree to avoid the resistance created by dragging it all the way to the lorry.

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Transport

In this calendar shot from the 1960s, elm butts are loaded ready to be taken to the yard. Once through the sawing process, some went to Ercol Furniture of Princes Risborough

Later in the 1960s, a consignment of oak butts is made ready fro the journey to the veneer mills in London.

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The New Saw Mill

As explained in the "Men of the Woods" feature, the family decided to rationalise the sawing process at the yard by installing a new machine which would replace a whole series of separate ones. A new building was put up to house the new machine. The family put the roof on themselves, as seen in the picture on the left, which was taken in the late 1950s. The new machine - a Brenta Band Saw - was one of the first of its type in the country. It was imported from Belgium, and with it came a Belgian engineer who took two weeks to assemble and test the machine.
Inside the new mill - Eric Whatton (r) with other employees (left to right) Maurice Cook of Hanslope, Den Brown of Hanslope, and Allan Geyton of Hartwell.
Ivan Webster (l) and colleague taking the sawn planks off the machine and stacking them on a pallet ready for drying.
Barry Kightly at the controls of the machine in 1967.

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In the Yard

Two of Whattons' employees in the yard at Hartwell in the 1950s. On the left - Harold Cross, who ran a saw bench, and on the right - Charles Dickens of Hartwell who, according to Archie Whatton, "could do anything".

On the left, Eric Whatton's son John supervises Bill Matthews in the loading of cover boards for the pits in the coal mines

In this view from the 1960s, Archie Whatton (left) watches the unloading of another consignment.

Archie Whatton (r) with the Secretary of the Midland English Timber Association, in front of a stack of furniture boards. The softwood sticks between the boards were inserted to prevent staining while the boards air-dried.

A lorry-load of boards ready for departure to Ercol Furniture. At first glance, it may look like a load arriving at the yard, but the trees have been sawn into panks, dried and restacked in their original configuration, as can be seen in the enlargement below

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Years on from the photo at the top of the page, but still a team unit in a family business. Clockwise from front left: (unknown); Reg Bailey of Ashton; Henry Butcher of Hartwell; Eric Whatton; (unknown); Bill Matthews - who worked for Whattons all his life (except for the war years); Bob Whatton

Epilogue

Bill Matthews, who is seen in the photo above as well as a in number of others in the story of the Whatton family business, worked for the firm all his life. To commemorate his 50 years of service to the firm, a celebration and presentation was held at The Pickwick Inn, Towcester. The two photos below capture the occasion, which was attended by all the Whattons.