osier bed
{{Short description|Location where historically willows were planted and harvested to produce withies}}File:Pavenham Osier Beds 2.JPG
File:Osier Cutting on the Upper Thames.jpg
An osier bed or osiery is where historically willows were planted and coppiced to produce withies, which were used for basket making, fish-traps, and other purposes. The willow species Salix viminalis, known as the "common osier" was typically, although not exclusively, grown for this purpose. The marshy fringes of rivers, especially those which were often flooded and those with small islands, aits, eyots, or holts, were the most common locations for osier beds.{{cite web |last1=Bott |first1=Val |title=The Willow Business |url=http://nurserygardeners.com/?p=1220 |access-date=26 April 2021}} Willow rods (cuttings) would be planted, which root easily in moist ground, and the growth of the willow withies would be cut every one or two years.{{cite web|url=http://www.gallica.co.uk/celts/farming.htm |title=Gallica, Historical & Archaeological Interpretation: Farming|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230081011/http://www.gallica.co.uk/celts/farming.htm |archive-date=December 30, 2010 }}{{cite book |last1=Robertson |first1=H.R. |title=Life on the Upper Thames (Polling the Willow, Osier Cutting and Peeling — rural work for men and women) |date=1875 |publisher=Virtue, Spalding, & Co. |url=https://victorianweb.org/history/work/22.html |access-date=26 April 2021}}
Osier beds and basket-weaving using willow were a significant industry in Great Britain until the early 20th Century, when industrial machinery and the import of cheaper materials made them unprofitable and commercially unviable.{{cite web |title=The History Society Heritage Osier Bed |url=https://www.twyfordallotments.org.uk/stories/63-the-history-society-heritage-osier-bed |website=Twyford Allotments Tenant Association |access-date=26 April 2021}}{{cite web |title=History of Holt Island & it's wildlife |url=http://www.holtisland.org/index.php/about-holt-island/history |website=Friends of Holt Island Nature Reserve |access-date=26 April 2021}}{{cite book |last1=Robertson |first1=H.R. |title=Life on the Upper Thames (Osier Peeling — rural work for men, women, and children) |date=1875 |publisher=Virtue, Spalding, & Co. |url=https://victorianweb.org/history/work/22c.html |access-date=26 April 2021}}