A photograph showing five pixies cutting down a six-foot Christmas tree in Penmachno in 1945 has prompted renewed interest in the tiny workers who kept Welsh forestry going during the Second World War.
Historians say the Forestry Commission recruited pixies to address wartime labour shortages, employing entire communities to manage woodland while men were away serving in the armed forces.
The recently rediscovered photograph captures the eleventh week of a Christmas tree harvesting operation. Two workers appear to be resting inside the trunk, while another supervises from what colleagues described as “a safe distance of almost four inches”.
Pixies cutting down a six-foot Christmas tree in Penmachno, 1945. The customer later asked whether they had a slightly bigger one.
“They were highly skilled woodsmen,” said a local historian. “Unfortunately, their productivity figures suffered because walking from the car park to the forest took most of Monday.”
Despite these difficulties, the teams developed efficient working practices. A single teabag reportedly supplied the Penmachno workforce for eighteen months, although retrieving it from the mug required a block and tackle.
When the war ended, returning forestry workers left many pixies facing redundancy.
Records suggest their final consultation meeting took place in a biscuit tin outside Betws-y-Coed. Proceedings were repeatedly interrupted by a manager putting the lid on whenever questions about pensions became uncomfortable.
Some found employment on model railways, where their forestry experience proved useful in maintaining tiny embankments. Others retrained as station staff.
“My grandfather spent thirty years beside a miniature signal box,” said one descendant. “He enjoyed the work, but every Christmas a giant hand would move him into the loft. No explanation. No replacement bus.”
A larger group entered the garden ornament industry after a recruitment agency assured them that becoming gnomes would involve “minimal retraining and a slightly different hat”.
The work proved less rewarding than promised.
“One man stood beside a pond in Llanrwst for forty-three years holding a fishing rod,” the historian explained. “It was a concrete pond. He raised this at every annual appraisal.”
Several former forestry pixies established a successful dolls’ house business, later increasing their prices considerably by advertising the properties as “cosy holiday cottages within easy reach of Eryri”.
Others remained in woodland management, specialising in bonsai trees until a contractual dispute arose over whether a sprig of parsley constituted a forestry assignment.
Surviving workers now hope the photograph will bring overdue recognition, particularly given the attention routinely lavished on Christmas elves.
“Elves get films, adverts and their own shelves,” said one retired foreman. “We got a redundancy cheque that four of us had to carry to the bank.”
A commemorative plaque has been proposed for Penmachno.
However, discussions have stalled after the first draft thanked the pixies for making “a small contribution”.
