Autumn in the Western Weald is a season of sensory pleasures. The air turns crisp and clean, tinged with the scent of woodsmoke curling from cottage chimneys. The trees put on their grand finale, scattering leaves in a blaze of gold, russet, and amber. It’s the season for pulling on a favourite jumper, lighting the first fire of the year, and embracing the gentle rituals of tidying up before winter takes hold.
Among those rituals is the simple act of sweeping, clearing the lawn of leaves, brushing paths free of debris and generally making the garden tidy for winter. One of the best tools for the job is the simple besom broom. Far from being the stuff of fairy tales, the besom is an incredibly practical, versatile implement, and one of the few tools still made by hand in Sussex by a master of the craft.
Meet the Broomsquire
That master is Chris Letchford, broom squire of Pulborough, and former National Broom Making Champion. Chris didn’t grow up with sawdust under his fingernails. For decades his work was as far from the coppice as it’s possible to get: a corporate career, a desk, and the usual grind. But in his mid-fifties he decided to swap his desk for the woods. After training at Brinsbury College, close to his home, he initially took on contracting work managing heathlands. This often involved removing birch. Seeing so much of it go to waste sparked the idea of using it to make brooms.
Learning the Craft
Under the expert tutelage of Arthur Haffenden, a Sussex broom maker with forty years’ experience and custodian of the craft at Amberley Museum, Chris soon learnt the deceptively simple anatomy of a besom: a chestnut handle, a head of straight birch, and wire to bind them together. The materials are humble, but finding the right birch and layering it correctly is an art. “Not just any old branch will do,” Chris says. “It needs to be relatively straight, so the broom is compact in the hand.”
There are only a handful of broom squires left in Britain today, yet there is still demand from estates, households, golf clubs and people looking for Halloween decorations and accessories. What’s best about a good besom broom is that there is no waste: year one, it sweeps the lawn; year two, the gravel paths; year three, the patio or drive; then when it’s finally worn down, it becomes firewood! Can you think of anything more sustainable?
Roots in Language & History
In case you are wondering, the word besom stems from the Anglo Saxon ‘Besma’ meaning broom. And just to push the point home, they were also originally made from wild growing broom. This is now virtually impossible to find outside of gardens, so birch has become the accepted alternative. The heyday of broom-making also came in the centuries following the Bubonic Plague, when laws required people to keep clean the area outside their homes.
As even centuries ago broom making was never a full-time job, Chris also makes something called Sussex Pimp. In fact, he is the sole maker of these designer kindling bundles made of birch and hazel bound together with tarred string. Interestingly, Pimp has its roots at Petworth House, where it was used to get their fires roaring in seconds. Stacked in perfectly uniform bundles within custom-made wrought iron holders they are beautiful hearthside works of art.
The Pimp-making tradition was almost lost until respected Sussex coppice craftsman Alan Walters revived it. When Alan died in February 2024, Chris took over to make sure the craft continued.
More Than Just Tools
And that’s the heart of it: the besom and the Sussex Pimp are more than just practical tools for sweeping leaves or sparking a fire. They are living links to an older rhythm of life, when woodlands were worked in tune with the seasons, when every part of a tree had a purpose, and when craft and countryside were inseparable.
In Chris’s hands, a length of chestnut and a bundle of birch become something more than their parts: they become an emblem of making do and making well. In each broom’s sweep and each pimp’s flame, there’s a trace of Sussex’s past, from Petworth’s grand fireplaces to the quiet corners of the Weald where broom squires once plied their trade.
So, when the wind shakes the last copper leaves from the oak and frost traces its lacework on the lawn this autumn, pause for a moment. Light the fire, take up the broom, and remember that you’re taking part in a tradition that has been warming hearths and keeping doorsteps clear for centuries. Thanks to makers like Chris, these small rituals remain stitched into the fabric of autumn, keeping not just homes tidy and warm, but keeping a piece of Sussex alive.
Find Out More
If you would like to buy a besom broom (available in 3 sizes) or some Sussex Pimp you can contact Chris by email at chris.letchford@btinternet.com. Alternatively, you can find his products at The Makers Barn, outside Petworth (https://www.makersbarn.co.uk) or meet Chris himself at Langham Brewery on 18 October, where he is appearing in Beer, Knobs & Broomsticks. He will be there alongside walking stick maker, Mike Rankin.
