More about laburnum

[dickm]

Not really woodWORKING as such, but wondered if anyone on here had ideas to explain a rather strange site (deliberate spelling!). On the open hill up above Stonehaven, altitude about 200m, there are two stonewalled enclosures each about 20m square. Inside the enclosures are some 8 to a dozen overmature laburnum trees. Guessing they are 70-100 years old. But WHY would anyone plant laburnum in such a situation? They are toxic, or certainly unpalatable, to livestock as well as humans and the site is too isolated for them to be there for decoration. Wouldn't think there could ever have been enough demand for the timber to justify planting, especially somewhere inaccessible. Any thoughts?

 

[AndyT]

My guess is that they were planted for the wood. A particular use of laburnum used to be for cutting 'oyster' veneers

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oystering

The stone wall could have been to keep livestock out, to avoid poisoning.

 

[custard]

The heartwood of a mature Laburnum was the darkest timber that many rural British furniture makers would ever have access to. Laburnum is a bit odd in that it often has two distinct shades of heartwood, there's the pale sap, then an outer heartwood which is an olive brown colour, and finally the dark brown inner heartwood. Plus Laburnum is reasonably fine grained, so it makes a striking companion to something like Holly stringing or inlay. There was a resurgence of interest in Laburnum with the Arts & Crafts movement, Chris Vickers continues to use Laburnum today in exactly this tradition,

http://www.artsandcraftsdesign.com/tabl ... _desk.html

http://www.artsandcraftsdesign.com/tabl ... table.html

Who knows, maybe your trees were planted to satisfy that fresh demand?

 

[dickm]

I'm a great fan of laburnum, but still no convinced aþout anyone planting it on that particular site for timber. Though the link to Arts and Crafts might be the right timing. Must see if there's any more local history information.

 

[Rob Platt]

used in bag pipes and other musical instruments
maybe someone was looking ahead
all the best
rob