Coppice Merchant / Dealer

A Coppice Merchant or Underwood Dealer's function was to buy standing coppice, contract with woodmen on a piece-work basis to cut and sort the wood, sell on the produce, supply local craftsmen and dispose of the brash to leave a clean floor with the new growth protected by stock-proof hedges. Countrywide, between 150 and 200 coppice dealers were in virtual control of the industry at the operational level. Before the war, about a dozen existed in the Lake District, and between 6 and 8 in the North Hampshire Woodlands. Coppice dealers (as opposed to firewood dealers) were less common in the chestnut than the hazel districts. As a class, they have now all but disappeared.

Coppice Dealers had an unrivalled knowledge of the local woods, what each could produce, and the market for each and every product. Their passing has left large gaps in the supply chain.